The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1904-04-07

but, BUT-WllY?"
bean, ye shall have; perhaps even
ages dig and eat; but, look you, this Is
but because you are with one who is
brave Enfn, go. | bend me to the
hoe, here in this place, like any peas
ant"
AN excellent hoe can be made from
the blade bone of an elk, as the wo-
man Wahana will perhaps show you
if you like" said Pierre Noir, derisive-
ly, to his comrade Of the paddle.
Gwen So" said Jean Breboeuf. q
make me the hoe Could | have but
thee, old Pierre, to sit on a stump and
fright the crows away, | make no
doubt that all would go well with our
husbandry. | had as lief so censitaire
for Monsieur Las as for any seignieur
on the Richclieu; of that he sure, old
Pierre"
Faith replied the latter, when it
comes to frightening crows, I'll even
agree to sit on stump with my
musket across my knees and watch
YOU work. Tis a good place for a
sentinel-to keep the crows from pick
ing yet more bones than these which
will embarrass you in your hoeing,
Jean Breboeuf."
lie says the Richelieu, Du Mesne,"
broke in John Law, musingly. Very
far away it sounds. | wonder if we
shall ever see it again, with its little
narrow farms But here we have our
own trails and our own lands, and let
us hope that Monsieur Jean shall
prosper in his belated farming. And
now. for the rest of us, we must look
presently to the building of our
houses"
Thus began, slowly and in primitive
fashion the building of one of the first
cities of the vast valley of the Mes
sasebo: the seeds of civilization taking
hold upon the ground of barbarism,
the one snpplanting the other yet
availing itself of that other. AS the
white men took over the crude fields
of the departed savages, so also they
appropriated the imperfect edifice
which the conquerors of those savages
had left for them. 1t was in little the
story of old England herself, buided
upon the races and the ruins of Briton.
and Roman. ard Saxon, of Dane and
Norman.
Under the direction of Law, the walls
of the old war house were strengthened
with an inner row of palisades, sup
porting an embankment of earth and
stone The overlap of the gate was ex-
tended into re-entrant angle, and
rude battlements were erected at the
four corners of the inclosure The
little stream of unfailing water was
led through a corner of the fortress.
| In the center of the Enclosure they
| built the houses: a cabin for Law, one
for the men, and a larger one to serve
as store room and as trading place,
should there be opportunity for trade.
1t was in these rude quarters that
Law and his companion established
! that which was the nearest approach
to home that either for the time
might claim and it was thus that
|
| bootlcss human experiment of seeking
to escape from ones own self. Silent
now, and dutifuly obedient enough
was this erstwhle English beauty,
Mary Connynge; yet often and often
Law caught the question of her gaze.
And often enough, too, he found his
own questioning running back up the
| III \
across the wide ocean. in demand
which, fiercer and fercer as it grew,
he yet remained too bitter and too
proud to put to the proof by any means
now within his power Strange
enough, savage enough, hopeless
enough, was this wild home of his in
the wilderness of the Messasebe.
The smoke of the new settlement
rose steadily day by day, bu: it gave
signal for no watching enemy. All
about stretched the pale green ocean
of the grasses, dotted by many wild
flowers. nodding and bowling like bits
of fragile iotsam on the surface of a
continually rolling sea. The little
groves of timber, scattered here and
there, sheltered from the summer sun
! the Wild cattle of the plains. The
shorter grasses hid the coveys of the
prairie hens, and on the marsh-grown
bayou banks the wild duck led her
brood. A great land, rich, fruitful
one, was this that lay about these ad-
! venturers.
A soberness had come over the habit
of the master mind of this little col
ony. Ills hand took up the ak, and
forgot the sword and gun. Day after
day he stood looking about him. exam