t. And then the children
which you will add to our colony will cost something to bring up. If
that fell on us alone, we should surely take care of them without a word
of complaint; but the comfort of everybody would suffer, and your eldest
children would bear their share of hardship. When families grow too
large, if money does not keep pace, misery comes, no matter how bravely
you bear up. This is what I wished to say, Germain; think it over,
and try to make the widow Guerin like you; for her discretion and her
dollars will help us now and make us feel easy about the future."

"That is true, Father. I shall try to please her and to like her."

"To do that you must go to find her, and see her."

"At her own place? At Fourche? That is a great way from here, is it not?
And we scarcely have time to run off at this season of the year."

"When it is a question of a love-match you must make up your mind to
lose time, but when it is a sensible marriage of two people, who take
no sudden fancies and know what they want, it is very soon decided.
To-morrow is Saturday; you will make your day's work a little shorter
than usual. You must start after dinner about two o'clock. You will be
at Fourche by nightfall. The moon rises early. The roads are good, and
it is not more than three leagues distant. It is near Magnier. Besides,
you will take the mare."

"I had just as lief go afoot in this cool weather."

"Yes, but the mare is pretty, and a suitor looks better when he comes
well mounted. You must put on your new clothes and carry a nice present
of game to Father Leonard. You will come from me and talk with him, pass
all of Sunday with his daughter, and come back Monday morning with a yes
or no."

"Very well," answered Germain calmly, and yet he did not feel very calm.

Germain had always lived soberly, as industrious peasants do. Married
at twenty, he had loved but one woman in his life, and after her death,
impulsive and gay as his nature was, he had never played nor trifled
with another. He had borne a real sorrow faithfully in his heart, and
it was not without misgiving nor without sadness that he yielded to his
father-in-law; but that father had always governed the family wisely,
and Germain, entirely devoted as he was to the common welfare and so,
by consequence, to the head of the house, who represented it, could not
understand that he might have wronged his own good sense and hurt the
interests of all. Nevertheless, he