Pani and run away, for I shall be a big girl then," and she
laughed over the plan.

What a day it was! The woods were full of fragrant odors, though here
and there great patches had been cut and burned so as to afford no
harbor to the Indians. Fruits grew wild, nuts abounded, and oh, the
flowers! Jeanne liked these days in the woods, but what was there that
she did not like? The river was an equal pleasure. Pani filled her pail
with plums, Jeanne her arms with flowers.

The new house of Delisse Ganeau became a great source of interest. It
had three rooms, which was considered quite grand for a young couple.
Jacques Graumont had a bedstead, a table, and a dresser that had been
his mother's, a pair of brass candlesticks and some dishes. Her mother
looked over her own stores, but the thriftier kind of French people put
away now and then some plenishing for their children. She was closely
watched lest Delisse should fare better than the other girls. Sisters
had sharp eyes.

There was her confession to be made, and her instruction as to the
duties of a wife, just as if she had not seen her mother's wifely life
all her days!

"I like the Indian way best," cried Jeanne in a spirit of half
contrariness. "Your husband takes you to his wigwam and you cook his
meal, and it is all done with, and no fuss. Half Detroit is running
wild."

"Oh, no," replied Pani, amused at the child's waywardness. "I dare say
the soldiers know nothing about it. And your great general and the
ladies who give dinners. After all it is just a few people. And, little
one, the Church wants these things all right. Then the husbands cannot
run away and leave the poor wives to sit and cry."

"I wouldn't cry," said the child with determination in her voice, and a
color flaming up in her face.

Yet she had come very near crying over a man who was nothing to her. She
was feeling hurt and neglected. One day out in her dainty canoe she had
seen a pleasure party on the river and her hero was among them. There
were ladies in beautiful garments and flying ribbons and laces. Oh, she
could have told him among a thousand! And he sat there so grandly,
smiling and talking. She went home with a throbbing heart and would eat
no supper; crawled into her little bed and thrust her face down in the
fragrant pillow, but her fist was doubled up as if she could strike some
one. She would not let the tears steal through her lids but kept
swallowing over a big lump in her thr