thern shore of Biloxi Bay was rich in candleberry-myrtle. In
Clotilde's day, though Biloxi was no longer the capital of the
Mississippi Valley, the fort which D'Iberville had built in 1699, and
the first timber of which is said to have been lifted by Zephyr
Grandissime at one end and Epaminondas Fusilier at the other, was still
there, making brave against the possible advent of corsairs, with a few
old culverines and one wooden mortar.

And did the orphan, in despite of Indians and soldiers and wilderness,
settle down here and make a moderate fortune? Alas, she never gathered a
berry! When she--with the aged lady, her appointed companion in exile,
the young commandant of the fort, in whose pinnace they had come, and
two or three French sailors and Canadians--stepped out upon the white
sand of Biloxi beach, she was bound with invisible fetters hand and
foot, by that Olympian rogue of a boy, who likes no better prey than a
little maiden who thinks she will never marry.

The officer's name was De Grapion--Georges De Grapion. The Marquis gave
him a choice grant of land on that part of the Mississippi river "coast"
known as the Cannes Brulees.

"Of course you know where Cannes Brulees is, don't you?" asked Doctor
Keene of Joseph Frowenfeld.

"Yes," said Joseph, with a twinge of reminiscence that recalled the
study of Louisiana on paper with his father and sisters.

There Georges De Grapion settled, with the laudable determination to
make a fresh start against the mortifyingly numerous Grandissimes.

"My father's policy was every way bad," he said to his spouse; "it is
useless, and probably wrong, this trying to thin them out by duels; we
will try another plan. Thank you," he added, as she handed his coat back
to him, with the shoulder-straps cut off. In pursuance of the new plan,
Madame De Grapion,--the precious little heroine!--before the myrtles
offered another crop of berries, bore him a boy not much smaller (saith
tradition) than herself.

Only one thing qualified the father's elation. On that very day Numa
Grandissime (Brahmin-Mandarin de Grandissime), a mere child, received
from Governor de Vaudreuil a cadetship.

"Never mind, Messieurs Grandissime, go on with your tricks; we shall
see! Ha! we shall see!"

"We shall see what?" asked a remote relative of that family. "Will
Monsieur be so good as to explain himself?"

* * * * *

Bang! bang!

Alas, Madame De Grapion!

It may