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"Up there where the trees stand close together one does not feel the wind. You can be sure that Esdras and Da'Be are all right." "Yes?" But it was not of Esdras and Da'Be that she had just been thinking. SINCE the coming of winter they had often talked at the Chapdelaines about the holidays, and now these were drawing near.
In November Esdras, Da'Be and Edwige Legare went off again to the shanties.
The Canadian soil rid itself of the last traces of winter with a semblance of mad haste, as though in dread of another winter already on the way. Esdras and Da'Be returned from the shanties where they had worked all the winter.
The five men worked on unceasingly, while from day to day the clearing extended its borders by a little; deep wounds in the uncovered soil showed the richness of it. Maria went forth one morning to carry them water. The father and Tit'Be were cutting alders, Da'Be and Esdras piled the cut trees.
Esdras and Da'Be protected the foundation of their dwelling with earth and sand, making an embankment at the foot of the walls; the other men, armed with hammer and nails, went round the outside of the house, nailing up, closing chinks, remedying as best they could the year's wear and tear.
For weeks Maria had been expecting him. Half an hour earlier the sound of a step without had sent the blood to her cheek, and yet the arrival of him she awaited moved her with joyous surprise. "Offer your chair, Da'Be!" cried mother Chapdelaine. Four callers from three different quarters converging upon her, truly nothing more was needed to fill her with delightful excitement.
"By your face I am afraid you have bad news." "Yes." With a start of fear the mother half rose. "Not about the boys?" "No, Madame Chapdelaine. Esdras and Da'Be are well, if that be God's pleasure. The word I bring is not of them-not of your own kin. It concerns a young man you know." Pausing a moment he spoke a name under his breath: "Francois Paradis."
The married couple had given their first children, Esdras and Maria, fine, high-sounding, sonorous names; but they had apparently wearied of these solemnities, for the next two children never beard their real names pronounced; always had they been called by the affectionate diminutives of childhood, Da'Be and Tit'Be.
ESDRAS and Da'Be came down from the shanties in May, and their grieving brought freshly to the household the pain of bereavement. But the naked earth was lying ready for the seed, and mourning must not delay the season's labours.
And in the summer before the hay-making, and then again before the harvest, will be the best chance for building a nice tight warm little house, all of tamarack. I have the wood ready, cut and piled behind my barn; my brother will help me, perhaps Esdras and Da'Be as well, when they get home.
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