oatmen went down and removed it.
However, I did not mind the wetting. It was not the first time."

"And Monsieur did not take cold? The nights are chilly now along the
river's edge. The sun slips down suddenly," was Pani's anxious comment.

"Oh, no. I am inured to such things. I have been a traveler, too. It was
a gay day yesterday, Mam'selle."

"Yes," answered Jeanne. Yet she had felt strangely solitary. "Your
father, Monsieur, is in France. I have been learning about that
country."

"Oh, no, not yet. There was some business in Washington. To-morrow I
leave Detroit to rejoin him in New York, from which place we set sail,
though the journey is a somewhat dangerous one now, what with pirate
ships and England claiming a right of search. But we shall trust a good
Providence."

"You go also," she said with a touch of disappointment. It gave a
bewitching gravity to her countenance.

"Oh, yes. My father and I are never long apart. We are very fond of each
other."

"And your mother--" she asked hesitatingly.

"I do not remember her, for I was an infant when she died. But my father
keeps her in mind always. And I must give you his message."

He took out a beautifully embossed leathern case with silver mountings
and ran over the letters.

"Ah--here. 'I want you to see my little friend, Jeanne Angelot, and
report her progress to me. I hope the school has not frightened her.
Tell her there are little girls in other cities and towns who are
learning many wonderful things and will some day grow up into charming
women such as men like for companions. It will be hard and tiresome, but
she must persevere and learn to write so that she can send me a letter,
which I shall prize very highly. Give her my blessing and say she must
become a true American and honor the country of which we are all going
to feel very proud in years to come. But with all this she must never
outgrow her love for her foster mother, to whom I send respect, nor her
faith in the good God who watches over and will keep her from all harm
if she puts her trust in him.'"

Jeanne gave a long sigh. "O Monsieur, it is wonderful that people can
talk this way on paper. I have tried, but the master could not help
laughing and I laughed, too. It was like a snail crawling about and the
pen would go twenty ways as if there was an evil sprite in my fingers.
But I shall keep on although it is very tiresome and I have such a
longing to be out in the fields and woods, c