The Coolidge examiner., 1931-05-01
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 week and
planned with his friends to make
a longer expedition the following
year, as far as Crown Point and u
place called TicOnderOga. where
the French were going to build a
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 caution which was
eloquent in its significance.
With Toinette and her people
away from the seigneurie. Jeems
had no hesitation in going TO the
RiChelieu, and made trips there
with his father on snowshoes; and
in March, during a break in 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-
quanUed. This overseer was Peter
Lubbock, an old veteran for whom
Tonteur held Il 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
Il fashionable house in St. Louis
street. Peter said Tonteur wrote
in every letter to his fathW 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 bitter lone
lineSS when its hold was strongest.
For two years Toinette remained
in Quebec without making visit
TO the Richelieu. 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 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 a different thing, as
if something besides motherhood
bound him TO her His friends had
increased i'm 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 with
the old yearning but he did not go
to the Seigneurie Paul Tache and
his mother were also at the barOn'S
and he felt a sense of relief when
he learned that all of them were
on their way to Quebec, with the
exception of TOnteur, who re-
manned for the harvesting of crops.
fortnight after they had gone,
Peter told him about TOinette and
Paul Tache. He had scarcely rec
ogniZed TOinette. he said. She had
grown taller and more beautiful.
Tache was full-grown man and
dressed like young noble One
with half an eye could see that he
was desperately in love with Toi-
nette. Peter avOwed. But if he
were judge of such affairs, and
ne considered himself to be that,
Tache was a long way from
realization of his desires. even
taking TOinette's tender years into
consideration. She granted him no
favOrs. There had actually seemed
10 be coOlness in her attitude
toward him.
Peters words stirred Jeems with
satisfaction which he did not
let the other see. and not until he
was on his way home did he pull
himself from the folly of his
thoughts about TOinette. Even If
she were rot smiling on Tache as
warmly as he had supposed. he
knew she was as far removed
from him now as the sun was
from the earth. Yet, as time went
On, this fresh contact with her
presence. though he had not seen
her, gave determined impetus to
his plans for the future. There
were hours in which he saw him.
self a splendid enemy where fate
had ordained that he could not be
a friend. With increasing ma
turity giving to him a deeper and
more understanding naSSion for