The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1931-02-12
CHAPTER IV-Continued

CHAPTER IV-Continued
s
This winter he went farther in
his adventurings. Captain Pipe,
the old Caughnawaga, had habit
of spending several Of the hardest
weeks near the Bulains, and with
his two sons, White Eyes and Big
Cat, Jeems Travelled to the shores
of Lake Champlain for the first
time. He was gone d week and
planned with his friends to make
a longer expedition the following
year, as far as Crown Point and
place called Ticonderoga, where
the French were going to build
fort some day. On this excursion
he experienced the real thrill of
danger, for White Eyes and Big
Cat, both of whom were young
braves who had won their spurs,
moved with a caution which was
eloquent in its significance.
With Toinette and her people
away from the seigneurie, Jeems
had no hesitation in going to the
Richeieu, and made trips there
with his father on SnoWsh0es; and
in March. during a break in a spell
of intense cold, he went alone and
remained overnight in the house of
the baron's overseer with whose
young people he had become ac-
qualnIed. This overseer was Peter
Lubbock, an old veteran for whom
Tonteur held warm affection, and
through his son, Peter the younger,
Jeems had his first news of
Toinette. She was at the Ursuline
school, and her parents had taken
a fashionable house in st. Louis
street. Peter said Tonteur wrote
in every letter to his father that he
was homesick to get back to the
Richelieu.
AS another spring and summer
followed those which had gone be-
fore, Jeems knew he was fighting
something that had to be con
quered, a yearning for Tionette
which filled him with a bitter lone
illness when its hold was strongest.
For two years Toinette remained
in Quebec without making visit
to the Richeieu. During these
years, the tragedy of his divided
birth was forced upon JeemS.
There was no doubt that the Eng
lish in him was uppermoSt or that
the urge in his blood was toward
the southern frontiers and the col
onies of Hepsibah Adams. Yet he
loved the place where he lived
with a sincere passion-the Big
forest, Forbidden valley, all the
miles of wilderness about him as
far as he could look to the hori-
IONS. This was New France. 1t
was his fathers country and not
his mothers. Between his father
and himself a comradeship had
grown up which nothing could
break. But his worship for his
mother was different thing, as
if something besides motherhood
bound him to her. His friends had
increased in number. He came to
know people along the Richelieu
but was always conscious he was
not entirely one of them. Toinette's
words and her hatred for him per-
sisted in his memory and kept re-
calling this truth.
Late in August of the second
year of her absence, Toinette re
turned to Tonteur manor for
month. Jeems' heart ached witt
the old yearning, but he did not &C
to the seigneurie. Paul Tache ant
his mother were also at the baron's
and he felt a sense of relief wher
he learned that all of them were
on their way to Quebec, with the
exception of Tonteur, who re
NAMED for the harvesting of crops
A fortnight after they had gone
Peter told him about Toinette ant
Paul Tache. He had scarcely rec
ognized Tonette, he said. She hat
grown taller and more beautiful
Tache was a full-grown man ant
dressed like a young noble. ON
with half an eye could see that h,
was desperately in love with Toi
nette, Peter avowed. But if h
were a judge of such affairs, ant
he considered himself to be that
Tache was a long way from
realization of his desires, evel
taking Toinette's tender years int
consideration. She granted him n,
favors. There had actually SCENE,
to be GOODNESS in her attitud
toward him.
Peters words stirred Jeems wit
satisfaction which he did no
let the other see, and not until h
was on his way home did he pul
himself from the folly of hi
thoughts about Toinette. Even i
she were not smiling on Tache a
warmly as he had supposed h
knew she was as far remove
from him now as the sun wa
from the earth. Yet as time wen
on, this fresh contact with he
presence. though he had not see
her, gave a determined impetus t
his plans for the future. Their
were hours in which he saw hin
self splendid enemy where fat
had ordained that he could not b
a friend. With increasing ms
turity giving to him a deeper an
more understanding passion &c