, the wild flowers that
bloomed until frost came! and the fields turning golden with the
ripening corn, secure from Indian raids! The thrifty French farmers
watched it with delight.

Marie De Ber had been kept very busy since the spinning began. Madame
thought schooling shortsighted business except for boys who would be
traders by and by, and must learn how to reckon correctly and do a
little writing.

They went after the last gleaning of berries one afternoon, when the
autumn sunshine turned all to gold.

"O Marie," cried Jeanne, "here is a harvest! Come at once, and if you
want them don't shout to anyone."

"O Jeanne, how good you are! For you might have called Susanne, who goes
to school, and I have thought you liked her better than you do me."

"No, I do not like her now. She pinched little Jacques Moet until he
cried out and then she laid it to Pierre Dessau, who was well thrashed
for it, and I called her a coward. I am afraid girls are not brave."

"Come nearer and let us hide in this thicket. For if I do not get a big
lot of berries mother will send Rose next time, she threatened."

"You can have some of mine. Pani will not care; for she never scolds at
such a thing."

"Pani is very good to you. Mother complains that she spoils you and that
you are being brought up like a rich girl."

Jeanne laughed. "Pani never struck me in my life. She isn't quite like a
mother, you see, but she loves me, loves me!" with emphasis.

"There are so many for mother to love," and the girl sighed.

"Jeanne," she began presently, "I want to tell you something. Mother
said I must not mention it until it was quite settled. There is--some
one--he has been at father's shop and--and is coming on Sunday to see
mother--"

Jeanne stood up suddenly. "It is Martin Lavosse," she said. "You danced
with him. He is so gay. O Marie!" and her face was alight.

"No, it is not Martin. I would not mind if it were. But he is so young,
only eighteen."

"You are young, too."

Marie sighed again. "You have not seen him. It is Antoine Beeson. He is
a boat builder, and has been buying some of the newly surveyed land down
at the southern end. Father has known him quite a long while. His sister
has married and gone to Frenchtown. He is lonely and wants a wife."

"But there are many girls looking for husbands," hesitated Jeanne, not
knowing whether to approve or oppose; and Marie's husband was such a new
idea.

"So father says. And we have