about them and the people are not
sad like those who sit yonder."

She pointed across the canal to rows of wooden tenement-houses many
stories in height; on narrow porches, nicked one above another, and on
fire-escapes which were slowly cooling after hours on the forge of the
sun, men, women, and children were packed, seeking a breath of fresh
air.

"They stand at loom and spinner and slasher all day," she said. "They
are too tired to walk afar to the parks. They wait there for good air to
come and it does not come."

"I don't understand why they flock down here from Canada--why they
stay," he declared, bluntly.

"Ah, you look at me when you say that!" she cried, arching her brows.
"You hear me talk about the sunset over the meadows and the hills, and
you wonder why I am not there? Well, listen! There are fourteen sons
and daughters of Onesime Dionne--that's my father--for all the habitant
folks marry young, and the priest smiles and blesses the household when
there are many children. And girls are not of much account in the house.
The sons claim and receive their shares of the arpents of land when
those boys are grown and married. The girl may marry--yes! But what if
the right one does not ask? What if the right one has a father who says
to him that he must obey and marry one the father has chosen? All kinds
of things can happen in the habitant country, m'sieu'. So, then, the
girl is less account in the house. And the letters come back from the
girls who have gone down into the mills in the States. The pictures come
back showing the new gown and the smart hat--and so!" She shrugged her
shoulders and tossed her free hand. "One more girl for the big mill!"

He stared at her with some curiosity.

"You ask yourself which one of those things happened to me, do you not?"

"Perhaps," he confessed.

"I talk little about myself. I talk about the habitant girls. I am
fortunate. I do not breathe the air where the looms clack. I inspect in
the cloth-hall because I have sharp eyes and nimble fingers."

"But you came here alone--it is strange. I mean, do not the father and
mother and all the family move here, usually?"

She lifted her chin and gazed at him with pride in her mien.

"If you go to Tadousac you shall find that my father owns a large farm
and that one of his grandfathers was a captain with General Montcalm,
and many Dionnes have lived on the land that was given to a brave man. I
came to the States because I