e
how-you-are from a jar behin' the door.

"Next year it is not so good. There is a bad crop and hard time, and
Bargon he owe two hunder' dollar, and he pay int'rest. Norinne, she
do all the work, and that little Marie, there is dam funny in him, and
Norinne, she keep go, go, all the time, early and late, and she get
ver' thin and quiet. So I go up from the mill more times, and I bring
fol-lols for that Marie, for you know I said I go to marry him some
day. And when I see how Bargon shoulders stoop and his eye get dull, and
there is nothing in the jar behin' the door, I fetch a horn with me, and
my fiddle, and, bagosh! there is happy sit-you-down. I make Bargon sing
'La Belle Francoise,' and then just before I go I make them laugh, for I
stand by the cradle and I sing to that Marie:

"'Adieu, belle Francoise;
Allons gai!
Adieu, belle Francoise!
Moi, je to marierai,
Ma luron lurette! Moi,
je to marierai,
Ma luron lure!'

"So; and another year it go along, and Bargon he know that if there come
bad crop it is good-bye-my lover with himselves. He owe two hunder'
and fifty dollar. It is the spring at Easter, and I go up to him and
Norinne, for there is no Mass, and Pontiac is too far away off. We stan'
at the door and look out, and all the prairie is green, and the sun
stan' up high like a light on a pole, and the birds fly by ver' busy
looking for the summer and the prairie-flower.

"'Bargon,' I say--and I give him a horn of old rye--'here's to le bon
Dieu!'

"'Le bon Dieu, and a good harvest!' he say.

"I hear some one give a long breath behin', and I look round; but, no,
it is Norinne with a smile--for she never grumble--bagosh! What purty
eyes she have in her head! She have that Marie in her arms, and I say to
Bargon it is like the Madonne in the Notre Dame at Montreal. He nod his
head. 'C'est le bon Dieu--it is the good God,' he say.

"Before I go I take a piece of palm--it come from the Notre Dame; it
is all bless by the Pope--and I nail it to the door of the house. 'For
luck,' I say. Then I laugh, and I speak out to the prairie: 'Come along,
good summer; come along, good crop; come two hunder' and fifty dollars
for Gal Bargon.' Ver' quiet I give Norinne twenty dollar, but she will
not take him. 'For Marie,' then I say: 'I go to marry him, bimeby.' But
she say: 'Keep it and give it to Marie yourself some day.'

"She smile at me, then she