kick, "I could not think of
it. I will go with you at once. Adieu, Mademoiselle," said he, bending
over Suzanne's unresisting hand. "Adieu, Messieurs, and I thank you for
your great interest in me." (This to Gaspard and Hippolyte.)

"And now, Monsieur Gratiot, I have already presumed too much on your
patience. I will follow you, Monsieur."

We left them, Lenoir, Suzanne, and her two suitors, standing at the pond,
and made our way through the path in the forest. It was not until we
reached the road and had begun to climb out of the valley that the
silence was broken between us.

"Monsieur," said Colonel Chouteau, slyly, "do you have many such
escapes?"

"It might have been closer," said Nick.

"Closer?" ejaculated the Colonel.

"Assuredly," said Nick, "to the extent of abducting Monsieur le cure. As
for you, Davy," he added, between his teeth, "I mean to get even with
you."

It was well for us that the Colonel and Monsieur Gratiot took the
escapade with such good nature. And so we walked along through the
summer night, talking gayly, until at length the lights of the village
twinkled ahead of us, and in the streets we met many parties making merry
on their homeward way. We came to Monsieur Gratiot's, bade our farewells
to Madame, picked up our saddle-bags, the two gentlemen escorting us down
to the river bank where the keel boat was tugging at the ropes that held
her, impatient to be off. Her captain, a picturesque Canadian by the
name of Xavier Paret, was presented to us; we bade our friends farewell,
and stepped across the plank to the deck. As we were casting off,
Monsieur Gratiot called to us that he would take the first occasion to
send our horses back to Kentucky. The oars were manned, the heavy hulk
moved, and we were shot out into the mighty current of the river on our
way to New Orleans.

Nick and I stood for a long time on the deck, and the windows of the
little village gleamed like stars among the trees. We passed the last of
its houses that nestled against the hill, and below that the forest lay
like velvet under the moon. The song of our boatmen broke the silence of
the night:--

"Voici le temps et la saison,
Voici le temps et la saison,
Ah! vrai, que les journees sont longues,
Ah! vrai, que les journees sont longues!"

CHAPTER X

THE KEEL BOAT

We were embarked on a strange river, in a strange boat, and bound for a
strange city. To us Westerners a halo of