The Coolidge examiner., 1931-04-03
CHAPT !

ON sunny afternoon in May,
~ 1749, dog, boy, a man, and
a woman had crossed the oak opens
of Tonteur's hill and were trailing
toward the deeper wilderness of
the French frontier westward of
the Richelieu and Lake Cham
plain-the dog first. the boy follow
ing, the man next, and the woman
last.
1t was a reversal of proper form,
TOnteur had grOwled as he watched
savage-infested country that had no
end. The man should have marched
at the head of his precious column
with his long gun ready and his
QueSting eyes alert; the woman
next, to watch and guard with him
then the boy and the dog, if sucE
nuisances were 10 be tolerated in
travel of this kind, with evening
coming on.
TOnteur was the one-legged war
riOr seigneur from whose griStmill
down in the valley the four were
going home.
His eyes had followed the woman
with a subdued and appraising hun
ger in them. Henri Bulain was a
strange man, he had thought. He
might be little crazy, might even
be a fool. But he was also very
lucky husband to possess a woman
with the sweet face and form and
the divinely chaSte heart of Cath
crime, his wife.
JeemS was a fortunate boy to
have her for a mother.
Even the dog was scOundrel for
luck. An Indian dog at that. A
sneaking, gOodfOr-nothing dog. A
wreck of a dog without a soul, to
be fed by her, petted by her, smiled
at by her-as ne had seen her
smile.
TOnteur was first of the long
string of heroic fighting barons set
tied by France along the Richelieu
to hold the English and their red
harbarians hack. He was Door
keeper to the waterway that led
straight to the heart of New
France. If the English came with
their scalping fiendS, the Mohawks
and the SenecaS, they would have
to pass over him first of ALL No
general could be given greater dis
tinction than that. Honor. Wealth.
a wide domain over which he was
king.
And yet
He envied Henri Bulain.
1t was midafternoon. Maytime
shadows were growing longer TO-
ward the east. 1t was the hour
when birds were singing softly.
Morning had heard their defiance.
glorious and fearless challenge of
teathered minstrelsy to all the spir-
It's of darkness; but with late
AFTERNOON, sunset, evening, these
same slim-thrOated sOngsters found
a note of gratitude and of prayer
IN their chastened voices. Flowers
crushed underfoOt. In the open
spaces they carpeted the earth with
white and pink and blue. Flow
ers and birds and peace-a world
illled with declining sun-a smil-
ing heaven of blue over the tree
topS-and with them dog. a boy.
man, and a woman advancing
westward.
Three OF these, even the dog,
TOnteur envied.
This dog had name which fitted
him, TOnteur had thought. For he
was q wreck of a dog-even more
wreck than the splendid seigneur
himself. with his stub of a shot-off
leg and breast that bore sword
marks which would have killed an
ordinary man. The dog. first of all.
was a hOmely dog, so hOpelessly
hOmely that one could not help low
ing him at sight. His hair was
bristly and unkempt. His paws
huge. His tail was half gone, which
left him only stub to wag. He
walked with a limp, a heavy, never
failing limp that seemed to shake
his long body from end to end, for
his left fore paw-like Tonteur's
fOOt-was missing. A crooked,
CHEEKY, inartiStic, lovable dog to
whom the woman-in q moments
visioning of the fitness of things
had given the name of Odds-and-
Ends