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Between his thoughts of Melisse and Lac Bain, he dreamed of that other world; and several times during the winter he took the little roll from the box of his violin, and read again and again the written pages that it contained. "Some time I will go," he assured himself always. "Some time, when Melisse is a little older, and can go too." To young MacDonald, the boy from Lac Bain was a "find."
Jan and Melisse were happy; and in the joys of these two there was pleasure for the others of the post, as there had been happiness in the presence of the woman. Only upon Cummins had there settled a deep grief.
At least Maballa assured him that this was so, and Melisse gave evidence of it by her ecstatic joy when he returned. When Cummins came back from Fort Churchill in the autumn, he brought with him a pack full of things for Melisse, including new books and papers, for which he had spent a share of his season's earnings.
Down there, under the silent spruce, he would bury the last that had remained to him of the old life, and there swelled up in his heart a longing, almost a prayer, that Melisse might know that he, Jan Thoreau, would have nothing left to him to-morrow but a grave, and that in that grave was their old chum, their old playmate Kazan.
"You came that night because Melisse was here. SOMETHING sent you SOMETHING don't you understand? And since then she has never been near to death until now. You must stay with Melisse WITH YOUR VIOLIN!" "Melisse herself shall choose," replied Jan. "We will go into the cabin, and the one to whom she comes first goes among the red flags.
It meant facing a death from which those who listened to the old factor shrank with dread; yet, when the call came, they responded to a man. Cummins and Jan ate their last supper together, with Melisse sitting between them and wondering at their silence. When it was over, the two went outside.
Her dancing eyes shot up to his, bubbling over with the mischief which she had been unable to suppress that day. "Why, Jan " He had never spoken to Melisse as he did now. "I was born some time in the winter, Melisse like you. Perhaps it was yesterday, perhaps it is to-morrow. That is all I know."
"Because I have heard her many times say, 'Bon-bon bonbon bonbon' which means candee; and always I have given her candee, an' now ze leetle Melisse say 'Bonbon' all of ze time." "Well," said Cummins, eying him in half belief. "Could it happen?" Like a shot Jan replied: "I began in Engleesh, an' Jan Thoreau is French!" He began playing, but Cummins did not hear much of the music.
With timid sweetness she added: "I haven't had it up again, Jan." She caught a glimpse of his lathered face in the glass, staring at her with big, seeking eyes. He turned them quickly away when he saw that she was looking, and Melisse set to work at the dishes. She had washed them before he finished shaving.
After that he joined Per-ee, who came in from the north, in another search for Jan. They found neither trace nor word of him after passing the Gray Otter, and Cummins gave up hope. It was not for long that their fears could be kept from Melisse. This first bitter grief that had come into her life fell upon her with a force which alarmed Cummins, and cast him into deep gloom.
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