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"There is no harm in Madame Lalotte." "You are right, monsieur. Jean Bati' McClure's wife puts all the mischief in her head. She would even learn to spin, if that woman would let her alone." "And I never heard any harm of Michel Pensonneau. He is a good enough fellow, and he has more to his credit on the Company's books than any other engagé now on the island."
The inhuman Gessler scarcely permitted his prisoner the satisfaction of a parting embrace with Henric and Lalotte, ere he ordered him to be hurried on board a small vessel in which he embarked also with his armed followers.
"Oh, fie! you greedy child; you want to eat the bird that is cooking for your father's supper," said Lalotte. "If I were my aunt, I would send you to bed only for thinking of such a thing." "You are not the mistress you are not the mistress!" cried the sturdy rebel Henric; "and I shall not go to bed at your desire."
Then, too, they must feast them with a dish of Indian cookery, which seemed ground maize broken by curiously arranged millstones, in which were put edible roots, fish, and strips of dried meat, that proved quite too much for miladi's delicate stomach. The child had grown accustomed to it, as Lalotte sometimes indulged in it, but she always shook her head in disdain and frowned on it.
At length they heard the children cry; on which, Lalotte ran into the room, and found no one with them but Lewis. "What a shame," cried Lalotte, "for that lazy boy Philip, to leave all these little ones, with only you, Lewis. Where is Henric, pray?" "Oh! Henric is gone to the fair with cousin Philip," lisped little Lewis. "Oh that wicked Philip!" cried Lalotte. "Aunt! aunt!
A coarse, but not unfriendly laugh finished the greeting as he caught both hands in an impetuous embrace. "Lalotte, old girl, has thy memory failed in two years? Or hast thou gotten another husband?" The woman gave a shriek of mingled surprise and delight. "The saints be praised, it is Antoine. And how if thou hast taken some Indian woman to wife?
"God hath sped my shaft, and blessed be His name!" exclaimed the pious archer, on whose ear the thunders of applause, with which the assembled multitude hailed his successful shot, had fallen unheeded. The soldiers now unbound the child; and Lalotte fearlessly advanced, and led him to his father.
"Have I not done my best for you and the boys? Do you think it does not hurt me to be severe with you?" Mama Lalotte flounced around on her stool, but made no reply. She saw peeping and smiling at the edge of the door a neighbor's face, that encouraged her insubordinations.
Poor Lalotte, meantime, having caught a glimpse of her uncle's tall, manly figure through the crowd, had pressed near enough to hear the alarming dialogue in which he had been engaged with the German soldiers. While, pale with terror, she stood listening with breathless attention, she recognised Philip at no great distance, with little Henric in his arms, among the spectators.
He was self-willed and intractable, and, though far from a bad disposition, was always getting himself and others into scrapes and difficulties. That night his place at the board was vacant, which his uncle observing, said, "Lalotte, where is your brother Philip?" "Absent, uncle, I am sorry to say," replied Lalotte.
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