and hear all the voices. The pines have one tone, the hemlocks and
spruces another, and the soft swish of the larches is like the last
tender notes of some of the hymns I sing with the sisters occasionally.
And the sun is so glorious! He clasps the baby leaves in his unseen
hands and they grow, and he makes the blades of grass to dance for very
joy. I catch him in my hands, too; I steep my face in the floods of
golden light and all the air is full of stars. Oh, no, I would not,
could not die! I would like to live forever. Even Pani is in no haste to
die."

"Thou art a strange child, surely. I have read of some such in books.
And I wonder that the heaven of the nuns does not take more hold of
thee."

"But I do not like the black gowns, and the coifs so close over their
ears, and the little rooms in which one is buried alive. For it seems
like dying before one's time, like being half dead in a gay, glad world.
Did not God give it to us to enjoy?"

The master nodded. He wondered when she was in these strange moods. And
he noticed that the mad pranks grew less, that there were days when she
studied like a soul possessed, and paid little heed to those about her.

But when a foreign letter with a great waxen seal came to her one day
her delight knew no bounds. It was not a noisy joy, however.

"Let us go out under the oak," she said to Pani.

The children were playing about. Wenonah looked up from her work and
smiled.

"No, children," said Jeanne with a wave of the hand, "I cannot have you
now. You may come to-morrow. This afternoon is all mine."

It was a pleasant, grave, fatherly letter. M. St. Armand had found much
to do, and presently he would go to England. Laurent was at a school
where he should leave him for a year.

"Listen," said Jeanne when they were both seated on the short turf that
was half moss, "a grown man at school--is it not funny?" and she laughed
gayly.

"But there are young men sent to Quebec and Montreal, and to that
southern town, New York. And young women, too. But I hope thou wilt know
enough, Jeanne, without all this journeying."

Pani studied her with great perplexity.

"But he wants me to know many things--as if I were a rich girl! I know
my English quite well and can read in it. And, Pani, how wonderful that
a letter can talk as if one were beside you!"

She read it over and over. Some words she wondered at. The great city
with its handsome churches and gardens and walks and palac