, how proud he
looked on his handsome horse! She felt as if something had gone out of
the day, but the sun was shining.

At the corner of old St. Louis street they paused. Here was M. De Ber's
warehouse,--the close, unfragrant smell of left-over furs mingling with
other smells and scenting the summer air. There was almost everything in
it, for it had great depth though not a very wide frontage: hardware of
many kinds, firearms, rough clothing such as the boatmen and laborers
wore, blankets, moccasins, and bunches of feathers, that were once in
great demand by the Indians and were still called upon for dances,
though they were hardly war dances now, only held in commemoration.

Pierre threw down the bundle he was shifting to the back of the place.

"Have you seen Marie this morning, Jeanne?"

There was a slow, indifferent shake of the head. The child's thoughts
were elsewhere.

"Then you do not know?" The words came quick and tumbled out of his
throat, as it were. He was so glad to tell Jeanne his bit of news first,
just as he had been glad to find the first flowers of spring for her, to
bring her the first fruits of the orchard and the first ripe grapes. How
many times he had scoured the woods for them!

"What has happened?" The boy's eyes were shining and his face red to its
utmost capacity, and Jeanne knew it was no harm.

"Madame Ganeau came to tea last night. Delisse is to be married next
month. They are to get the house ready for her to go into. It is just
out of St. Anne's street, not far from the Recollet house. It will be
Delisse's birthday. And Marie is to be one of the maids."

"Oh, that will be fine," cried Jeanne eagerly. "I hope I can go."

"Of course you will. I'll be sure of that," with an assumption of
mannishness. "And a great boat load of finery comes in to Dupree's from
Quebec. M. Ganeau has ordered many things. Oh, I wish I was old enough
to be some one's lover!"

"I must go and see Marie. And oh, Pierre, I have seen the great general
who fought the Indians and the British so bravely."

Pierre nodded. It made little difference to the lad who fought and who
won so that they were kept safe inside of the stockade, and business was
good, for then his father was better natured. On bad days Pierre often
had a liberal dose of strap.

"Come, Pani, let us go to Madame De Ber's."

Marie was out on the doorstep tending the baby, who was teething and
fretful. Madame was cooking some jam of sour pl