The Minneapolis journal., 1902-09-06


found my room before leaving with his
party, and we talked as we'll as we
could, and shook hands at parting.
The impressions Of that first year stay
IN my mind as I have heard the impress
sions Of childhood remain. It was, per-
haps, a kind Of brief childhood, swift in
it's changes and running parallel with the
development of youth.
My measure being sent to New York
by De Chaumont, I had a complete new
outfit in clothes; coat, waistcoat and
small-clothes, neckWear, rutf1es, and
Shirts buckle shoes, stockings. Of mild
yarn for cold weather, and thread stock
ings. Like most of the things for which
we yearn, when T got them I did not like
them as well as the Indian garments they
obliged me to shed.
+ Skenedonk came to see me nearly every
day, and sat still as long as he could
while toiled at books. I did not tell him
how nearly had disgraced us both by
running secretly to camp. So was able
to go back and pay visits with dignity and
be taken seriously, instead Of encounter
ing the ridicule that falls upon retreat.
My father was neither pleased nor dis
pleased. He paid my accounts exactly,
before the camp broke up for the winter,
making Skenedonk his agent. My mother
Marianne offered me food as she would
have offered it to Count de Chaumont; and
I ate it, sitting on mat as guest. Our
children. particularly the elder ones,
looked me over with gravity, and refrained
from saying anything about my clothes.
|. Our Iroquois went north before snow
flew, and the cabins stood empty, leaves
drifting through freholes in the bark
thatch. y sa.,-. .~-.-~" ~~
There have been students greedy Of
knowledge. seemed hollow with the fast
ing OF a lifetime. My master at first tried
to bind me to times; he had never encoun-
an a n annafifa
as woke in the morning reached for
d. book, and as days became darker, for
tinder to light a candle. studied inces
sanity, dashing. out at intervals to lake
or woods, and returning after, wild actlv-
ity, with increased zest to the printed
world. My mind appeared to resume q
faculty It had suspended, and to resume
with Incredible power. Magnetized by
books, cared for nothing else. That first
winter gained hold on English and Latin,
on French reading, mathematics. geogra-
ply and history. MY master was an OK
ford man, and when reused from david
ling, a scholar. He grew foolishly proud
and fond Of what he called my prodigious
advance. - 
. ',.~. ' # 80 5sss#5
De Chaumont's library was a luscious
field, and DR.. Chantry was permitted to
turn me loose in it, SO that the books were
almost like my own. I carried them
around hid in my breast; my coat skirts
were weighted with books. There were
Plutarch's Lives in the old French Of
Amyot, over which I labored: French
translation Of Homer; Corneille's trage-
dies; Rochefoucauld; Mantaigne's essays
in ten volumes; Thomson's POEMS, and
Chesterfield's letters, in English; the life
of Petrarch;> three volumes OF Montes-
quieu's works; and a Bible; which found
greatly to my taste. It was wide and
catholic taste. =,
De Chaumont spent nearly all that
autumn and winter in Castorland, where
he was building his new manor and found
| ing a settlement called LIE Rayvillle. AS
soon as + became member Of his house.
hold his patriarchial kindness was ex-
! tended to me, though he regarded me
simply as an ambitious half-breed.
The strong place which he had built
for his first holding in the wilderness
| thus grew into a clustered school for me.
It has vanished from the spot where
it stood, but I shall forever see it be-
tween lake and forest.
| Annabel de Chaumont openly hated the
isolation Of the place, and was happy only
when she could fill 1t with guests. But
| Madame de Ferrter evidently loved 1t,
remaining there with Paul and Ernestine.
Sometimes I did not see her for days
together. But Madamoiselle de Chaunont,
before her departure to her Baltimore
| convent for the winter, amused herself
with my education. She brought me an
old book Of etiquette in which young
gentlemen were admonished not to lick
their fingers or crack bones with their
teeth at table. Nobody else being at hand
she befooled with Doctor Chantry and
me, and I saw for the first time. with
surprise, an old mans infatuatton with
a poppet.
| (To Be Continued Monday.)