The Forge in the Forest

ure at t

ch displeased his Penobscot grandmother. It was pleasant to be back with the lad again, and I was aweary of the war, which of late had kept my feet forever on the move from Louisbourg to the Richelieu. My fire gave a cheerful roar as I heaved upon the bellows, and turned my pike-point in the glowing charcoal. As the roar sighed down into silence there was a merry whirr of wings, and a covey of young partridges flashed across the road. A contented mind and a full stom

picture in his mind's eye, "you would like her hair! It is unmi

t not of a woman's hair was I thinking at that moment, or I should surely h

zay comes down upon them?" I inquired. "Do they flatter themsel

fully and straightened

ing with the Governor?" he asked coldly. "I spoke with none

ence. "Every one knows your good disposition toward the English, and I should suppose you were in f

d half head taller than his father,-and

amezay's plans, would talk to the English about

feared lest I should find his sympathies all English. He was a lad with a way of thinking much and thinking for himself, and even now, at twenty

ow of de Ramezay's plans. There had been

over his lean face. Though free enough of his speech bet

uld accept their rule fully and in good faith. No one can say they haven't ruled us gently and generously. And I feel right sure they will continue to rule us, for the odds are on their side in the game they play with France. But seeing that the game

for three years, and then but briefly. At Grand Pré, and in Quebec at school, Marc had grown up outside my roving life, and I was just opening my eyes to find a comrade in this tall son of my boyhood's love. His mother, a daughter of old Baron St.

t, I returned to Marc's words, certain

Joseph, we'll drive the English all the way back of the Penobscot before you're a twelvemonth old

to be following with his eyes the vag

will the Flag of the Lilies be cast down even from the strong walls of Quebec. But may that day be far off! As for our people here in Acadie, duri

France; but I hate a bad priest. He's a dangerous man to cross, M

of a smile glimme

e as to think that I am an obstacle in his path. There be some whose eyes I have opened to his villany, so that he h

bad priest, the more so in that I yield to none in my reverence for a

hinks, as strong as the Black Abbé, evil though he be!" But I spoke, as

the forge, came the call of the big yellow-winged woodpecker. I prick

at me with s

a woodpecke

ring," I protested, "tha

f the ills to come!" said Marc,

ng up wide awake. But in this quiet land between the Habitants and the Canard I was off my guard,-and what a relief it was, indeed, to let myself be

, and yet no others of the English? A matter of dark nights and back windows? Eh? But come

It is a favoured resort of both the ladies; and there I met them as often as I was permitted. Mizpah would sometimes choose to play apart with the child, down by the water's edge if the tide were full, so

ster, with the even redder hair, who go

operty is in and about Annapolis, and she lives there to manage it, keeping Prudence with her for companionship. Her child is four or five years old, a yellow-haired, rosy b

point I inte

Indian?" I exclaimed, starin

e door. As he came in view he was reeling heavily, and clutching at his head. He dropped his fish; and a moment later he himself fell headlong, and

"There may be some trap in

ke not the breed; but ever since he got a hurt on the head, in a fight at Canseau last year, he has been

t, though I writhed and struggled with all my strength, I found myself bound hand and foot, and seated on the ground with my back against the door-post of the forge. Marc, bound like myself, lay by the roadside; and a painted savage sat near him nursing with both hands