Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-09-10
By JEFFERY FARNOL.

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since first wanted her. 1t is not mind
that changes"
"well, that's unusual. Young men are
often fckle. You never made proposals
for her?"
II did, madame, after her husband
died"
but she was still wife-1the wife of
an old man-in the Pigeon Roost settle
ment."
"Her father married her to a cousin
nearly as old as himself, when she was
child Her husband was reported dead
while he was in hiding. She herself
thought, and so did her friends, that ne
was dead"
You told me-" said to Madame
Ursule, 1.-THE Indians were afraid of her
when they burned the settlement was
the change so sudden?"
MADAME Jordan's story was like this
II happened in broad daylight. TWO men
went into the woods hunting bee trees
The Indians caught and killed them WITHIN
two miles of the clearing-some of those
very winnebagoes you treated with ior
your land.
''It was a sunshiny day in September.
You could hear the poultry growing, and
the children playing in the dooryards
Madeleine's little Paul was never tar
away from her. The Indians rushed IN
with yells and finished the settlement In
a few minutes. Madame Jordan and
her family were protected, but she saw
children dashed against trees, and her
neighbors struck down and scalped be-
fore she could plead for them. And lit
tie good pleading would have done. An
Indian seized Paul. His father ana the
old servant lay dead across the door
step. His mother would not let him go.
The Indian dragged her on her knees and
struck her on the head. Madame jordan
ran out at the risk of being scalped
herself. and got the poor girl into her
cabin. The Indian came back for Made
leines scalp. Madeleine did not see him.
She never seemed to notice anybody again.
She stood up quivering the whole length
of her body, and laughed in his face. 1t
was dreadful to hear her above the cries
of the children. The Indian went away
like a scared hound. And none of the
others would touch her"
We rose one morning to find the world
buried in snow. The river was frozen
and its channel padded thick. AS for
the bay stretches of snow fields, with
dark pools and broken gray ridges met
| ice at the end of the world
The whole festive winter spun past.
| Marie and Katarina brought young men
to the peaks of hope In the "twosing'
| seat. and plunged them down to despair,
! quite in the American fashion. Christ
mas and New Years days were great
festivals, when the settlement ate and
drank at Pierre Grignon's expense, and
made him glad as II he fathered the whole
| post. Madame Grignon spun and looked
| to the house. And a thousand changes
| passed over the landscape. But In all
| that time no one could see any change
| in my Cloud Mother. She sewed like q
| child. She laughed. and danced gavottes
/ mi snoR eff int ar.
est in what they called the Pigeon Roost
settlement affair. Madame Ursule had nc
doubt told them what said.
They pitied my Cloud-Mother and me
with the condescending pity of the very
! young, and unguardedly talked where
they could be heard.
"Oh, she'll come TO her senses some
time, and he'll marry her of course,
| was the conclusion they Invariably
reached; for the thing must turn out
! we'll to meet their approval. How coulC
they foresee what was to happen to peo-
pie whose lives held such contrasts?
Those spring days l was wild with rest
lessness. Life revived to dare things
| We heard afterward that about that time
the meteor rushed once more across
| France. Napoleon landed at a Medtter
ranean port, gathering force as h'
marched, swept Louis XVIII away like 6
cobweb in his path, and moved on Il
| Waterloo. The greatest Frenchman thai
| ever lived fell ultimately as low as st
Helena. and the Bourbons sat again upor
the throne. But the changes of which
knew nothing affected me In the IL
linois territory.
Sometimes walked at night and sat VI
in bed, hot with indignation at the in
justice done me. which / could nevei
| prove, which I did not care to combat
| vet which unreasonably walked the fight
ing spirit in me- Our natures toss anC
| change, expand or contract, influenced
by invisible powers we know not why.
One April night sat up in the veileC
light made by clouded moon. Rair
| points multiplied themselves on the win
dow glass; heard their sting. The i'm
pulse to go out and ride the wind. ol
| pick the river up and empty IL all Al
once into the bay, or tear Eagle out o.
| the cloud, or go to France and proclaim
myself with myself for follower; and
other feats Of like nature. being particu
larry strong in me. struck the pillow
beside me with my fist. Something
| bounced from It on the floor with
clack like wood. ! stretched downward
from one OF Madame Ursule's thicl
feather beds. and picked up what brough
| me to my feet. Without letting go of 1
locked book which skenedonk said h
had burned.
And there the scoundrel lay at tn
other side OF the room. wrapped In hi
blanket from head TO foot, mummied b!
sieep. / wanted to take him by tn
scalp lock and drag him around on tn
floor.
He had carried Il with him. or secrete'
Il somewhere, month after month.
could imagine how the state of the write
worked on his Indian mind. He repenteo
and was not able to face me- but feI
obliged to restore what he had with
held.
so waiting until | slept. he brough
forth the padlocked book and laid II ,
the pillow beside my head; thus beseect
ing pardon. and intimating that the sui
ject was closed between us.
/ got my key. and a Mt OF shiverin
seized me. / put the candle stand besid
the pillow and lay wrapped in beddin
clenching the small chilly paddock an