The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1908-01-30

table person, to beguile their scant
leisure time The loggers received It
with delight without a thought that
It was not designed for them
A reed instrument like a melodeon
is hardly adapted to Terpslchorean
strains But those loggers contrived
to dance to 1t. OF the thirty men at
this camp, twenty-four were French
Canadians. and there were two among
them who could play It. They played
everything on It. including jigs OF
quickest time and widest movement.
Really, the pleasure those loggers
took from it was worth the price of
the melodeon-although It would have
been hard to bring the bereayed schol-
ars In Number IL to think so. We
were filled wit hanger, and found no
consolation. Master Pearson, too, was
quite as inconsolable. He missed the
melodeon sadly
Worse even than the loss was the
sense Of being completely bafIled as to
who had taken It or where 1t had gone.
Several Of us attempted to enact the
role OF detectives We scrutlnized
that brass Jacket button, and even in
terviewed clothing dealers and tailors
at the three villages nearest to us.
We also sent two of the older girls TO
make secret inquiries over in Number
8 as to all the jackets worn by the
boys there.
But we gained no clue. Newman
and Alfred kept quiet; and as no one
else knew anything about 1t, there was
nothing TO leak out.
The button was Alfred Battelows,
but as he lived in another district and
at a distance, and did not wear that
Jacket afterward, suspicion never fell
on him.
There were numbers Of false clues.
We heard of several melodeons being
sold in other towns round about; but
on obtaining particulars, they all
proved different from ours. The con-
clusion finally settled on was that
some Of the Number 8 boys had taken
the melodeon out Of spite, and buried
| it, burned 1t, or cut hole in the ice
of the lake and sunk It.
After a hilarious winter at the lum-
ber-camp, the melodeon migrated over
the border In the latter part Of
March, when their winters work was
done, and the Canadian loggers were
ready to return to their homes, a dis
cussion arose as to who should have
the instrument. For they had regard
ed It as a present to them. Six of
Them at last packed 1t on hand-sled
and hauled 1t away to a little settle
ment, called Black Lake, in the Prov
ince of Quebec, thirty or forty miles
above the boundary.
At Black Lake, or else in the neigh
boring hamlet of earthly, there was a
lished under the Dominion school sys-
tenn, where the children received in
struction in French The school was
in charge of young lady from Sorel.
named Marie Ladoucier who had
some proficiency in music.
Several of the lumbermen were ad-
mirers of Mademoiselle Ladoucier, and
it came about ere long that our lost
melodeon was installed at this little
French schoolhouse, where for three
months it gave unbounded satisfac-
ton, morning, noon and night, as well
as at evening meetings of the French
people. They knew nothing of its pre-
vious history, and had no idea but that
it was honestly come by.
Not till August did so much as lisp
reach us as to its whereabouts
French-Canadians at this time had. be-
gun to come down over the border, to
work not only at lumber-eamps, but
on farms. In July that summer one Of
these same young men from Black
Lake called at our place, looking for a
job during the haying season. We
hired him, and he was with us four
weeks His name was Benoit Lech-
arme.
He could speak little English, and
as the melodeon was the subject of oe-
casional conversation, he heard OF it.
1t was recalled afterward that he
asked a great many questions about it
how it looked, where it was bought,
what makers name was on the front
OF it, and so forth Probably he sur
missed that this was the melodeon that
had appeared at the lumber-oamp, and
been carried to Black Lake.
But If 50, he was discreet. He said
nothing, and at last went home to
Canada without dropping hint. Per-
haps he wished first to make sure, be-
fore saying anything; perhaps he de-
sired to talk it over with Mademoisello
Ladoucier
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