e as he knelt.

"My son," the merchant said reverently, his hands outstretched over his
boy, "the Almighty keep and guard thee; may the blessing of thy father
and thy mother follow thee wherever thou goest."

"Amen," the son responded.

He rose and stood before his parent with bent head.

The old man exhorted him gravely on the dangers before him--on the
ruffians and lures of Paris, and the excitements of youth. He warned him
to attend to his religious duties, and to do credit to his family and
their condition in life by respectful and irreproachable conduct. "Never
forget," he concluded, in words which the young man remembered in after
years, "that the Eternal Justice follows us everywhere, and calls us to
exact account, either on earth or in the after life, for all our acts."

But here Lecour's solemn tone ceased, and he continued--"Now, Germain, I
must explain to you more closely the business on which I have sent for
you so suddenly. The North-West Company, who, as you know, command the
fur-trade of Canada, have word that a new fashion just introduced into
Paris has doubled the demand for beaver and tripled the price. They are
hurrying over all their skins by their ship which sails in ten days to
London from Quebec. I have space on a vessel which goes direct to Dieppe
the day after to-morrow, and can therefore forestall them by about two
weeks. I have gathered my winter stock into the boats you will see at
our landing; and your mother, who has always been so eager to send you
to France, has persuaded me to have you as my supercargo. Go, my boy; it
is a great opportunity to see the world."

"Yes, my Germain, at last," wife Lecour exclaimed joyfully, throwing her
arms around his neck, "at last you will set eyes on Versailles, and my
dreams about you will come true!"

The youth himself was in a daze of smiles and tears.

The chamber in which they were was the living-room of the house. Its low
ceiling of heavy beams, its spotlessly sanded floor, carpeted with
striped _catalogne_, its pine table, and home-made chairs of elm, were
common sights in the country. But a tall, brass-faced London clock in
one corner, a cupboard fuller than usual of blue-pattern stone-ware in
another, a large copper-plate of the "Descent from the Cross," and an
ebony and ivory crucifix on the walls, were indications of more than
average prosperity.

So thin was population throughout Canada in those days that to leave the
banks of the St