rbeau's carriage to take us once more
upon our journey. Ah! that was a terrible moment. Even Alix could scarce
hold back the tears. We refused to get into the carriage, and walked, all
of us together, to M. Gerbeau's, and then parted amid tears, kisses, and
promises.

XII.

LITTLE PARIS.

[So the carriage rolled along the margin of Bayou Teche, with two big
trunks besides Monsieur's on back and top, and a smaller one, lent by
Alix, lashed underneath; but shawls, mats, and baskets were all left
behind with the Carpentiers. The first stop was at the plantation and
residence of Captain Patterson, who "offered his hand in the English way,
saying only, 'Welcomed, young ladies.'" In 1795, the narrator stops to
say, one might see in and about New Orleans some two-story houses; but
along the banks of Bayou Teche, as well as on the Mississippi, they were
all of one sort,--like their own; like Captain Patterson's,--a single
ground floor with three rooms facing front and three back. Yet the very
next stop was at a little cottage covered with roses and with its front
yard full of ducks and geese,--"'A genuine German cottage,' said
papa,"--where a German girl, to call her father, put a great ox's horn to
her lips and blew a loud blast. Almost every one was English or German
till they came to where was just beginning to be the town of Franklin. One
Harlman, a German, offered to exchange all his land for the silver watch
that it best suited Monsieur to travel with. The exchange was made, the
acts were all signed and sealed, and--when Suzanne, twenty years after,
made a visit to Attakapas there was Harlman and his numerous family still
in peaceful possession of the place.... "And I greatly fear that when some
day our grandchildren awaken from that apathy with which I have always
reproached the Creoles, I fear, my daughter, they will have trouble to
prove their titles."

But they journeyed on, Francoise ever looking out the carriage window for
the flatboat, and Suzanne crying:

"Annie, my sister Annie, do you see nothing coming?" And about two miles
from where Franklin was to be they came upon it, greeted with joyous
laughter and cries of "Miss Souzie! O Miss Souzie!" from the women and the
children, and from Mario: "I have it, Signor! I have it! My prinicipality,
Miss Souzie! It is mine, Signorina Francoise!" while he danced, laughed,
and brandished his arms. "He had taken up enough land," says Francoise,
"for five princi