Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-01-03
Jean drew of his boots, and then

down his blanket. The best places
on the floor were taken, and he had
to stretch his long legs at some dis
lance from the fire. His brothers
and sisters did not think it necessa-
ry to be very considerate of Jean
he was SO good-natured and stupid.
When he was small child there had
been two bad years, when the pota-
toes rotted, the buckwheat blasted,
and there was no snow for numbering.
Then the Brusoe family had lived on
horse-feed; the mother became hag-
gard, and the older children too; but
Jean felt the hardships most and
grew up hollow-eyed, slow and clum-
sy.
Miss Bronson must have been in
terested in her guests, for after the
last one had gone she felt like talk
ing them over with some one; but
her father was asleep. She went up
stairs to her own bedroom, her
thoughts still busy with the people
whose acquaintance she had just
made. She was struck by their vigor
and simplicity. They seemed to
have absorbed the vitality and
wholesome vim of the evergreen for
ests in which they lived-tempered
with the same forests tranquility.
Moreover, it was the good fortune of
these Canadians to have preserved
something of tho Old-World French
mans vivacity and social traits,
while they acquired stubborn hardi-
hood sprung of their American trans
planting. They had the advantage
over the jewellers in cities. In her
enthusiasm she believed she would
like to become one of them; ex-
changing for their single cares the
questions, religious and social,
which of late years had been trou-
bling her. But perhaps they would
be unwilling to receive her. She re-
membered several occasions when
they watched her very critically.
On the morning following Miss
Dorothy's party Jean went to the
cabin of Pierre Arneau. The little
old fiddler was also a cobbler; but
to-day his leather. apron was put
aside.
Good Christmas to you. Jean
Baptiste Brusoe!'' he cried, as the
lad came in. ''You and l are up
early we were not jigging as much as
the others last night. Did not our
girls look well? If all those in the
city are as pale as nam selle they
are truly to be pitied."
'Yes-she is pale" assented Jean,
slowly. But do you not think she
is better than the girls at Lake Brule
in some ways? She is so quiet
and so clean"
Perhaps So" said the cobbler;
''yet they say she is thirty years old,
and she is not married. That, you
know, speaks i'll for her. But, Jean,
I've been thinking of you. Why do
you not ask some good girl to be your
woman, and then settle down You
are old enough and big enough to
have home of your own. Don't be
bashfull 1t is happiness-to work
hard, to have family; no time to
be sad. We are not like the Irish
and the Yankees, who let their old
people 60 to the poorhouse. There
is no worry about old age if we have
children. See old man Bonnat-for
ten years he has done nothing but
fish and smoke and sit by the fire;
laughs more than he cries. Life is
good when man settles down. Now,
there is my Delphine-she is not bad
looking. The girls know you are
steady, and they think of that,
though they may like to laugh with
that chattering Antoine Latour.
Think it over, Jean. should be
glad to have you as a son-in-law.
Before Jean left he said he would
think it over.
The cobbler, expecting him back in
the evening, told his black-eyed Del
phine to put on shoes and stockings
(even in winter the young women,
while in the house, did not wear
these luxuries) and to keep herself
tidy. But Jean did not come.
"He may like some other one bet
ter" thought Pierre, sadly, though
no girl in the settlement has been
more neighborly to him than Del
phine. / know she likes him."
However, as the winter wore on
Jean did make some calls, but not at
the cobbler's shanty. He got into
the habit of stopping at the back
door of the cottage to ask IL he could
not do something for Mr.. Bronson.
And sometimes Jean was asked into
the big sitting-room, where an open
fire was burning, and where he saw
Miss Bronson.
She thought this tall, simple fell
low, with his shock of black hair and
mild, deep-set eyes, was an interest
ing type of the Canadian woodsman,
and she observed him and talked to
him, drawing him out as well as his
bashfulness would permit. She was
very friendly.
Jean, at the same time, was watch
her, comparing her with the young
women about lake Brule. Decidedly
she was not as pretty and healthy
looking, nor as strong to bring in
wood and carry water from the lake.
1t was very necessary that wife
should be able to do these things, and
Jean decided that her apparent lack
ing in this respect was the reason no
man had chosen her for wife. Yet
in some other respects she excelled
the girls one saw in the settlement;
and. after all sometimes small, weak