no longer have a chance to put mischief into her head."

Jenieve took him seriously, though she had often suspected, from
what she could see at the fort, that Americans had not the custom of
marrying an entire family.

"It is really too fine a place for us."

Young Crooks laughed. Squaws had lived in the Fur Company's quarters,
but he would not mention this fact to the girl.

His eyes dwelt fondly on her in the darkness, for though the fire
behind her had again sunk to embers, it cast up a little glow; and he
stood entirely in the star-embossed outside world. It is not safe
to talk in the dark: you tell too much. The primitive instinct of
truth-speaking revives in force, and the restraints of another's
presence are gone. You speak from the unseen to the unseen over
leveled barriers of reserve. Young Crooks had scarcely said that
place was nothing, and he would rather live in that little house
with Jenieve than in the Fur Company's quarters without her, when she
exclaimed openly, "And have old Michel Pensonneau put over you!"

The idea of Michel Pensonneau taking precedence of him as master
of the cedar hut was delicious to the American, as he recalled the
engage's respectful slouch while receiving the usual bill of credit.

"One may laugh, monsieur. I laugh myself; it is better than crying.
But it is the truth that Mama Lalotte is more care to me than all the
boys. I have no peace except when she is asleep in bed."

"There is no harm in Madame Lalotte."

"You are right, monsieur. Jean Bati' McClure's wife puts all the
mischief in her head. She would even learn to spin, if that woman
would let her alone."

"And I never heard any harm of Michel Pensonneau. He is a good enough
fellow, and he has more to his credit on the Company's books than any
other engage now on the island."

"I suppose you would like to have him sit and smoke his pipe the rest
of his days on your doorstep?"

"No, I wouldn't," confessed the young agent. "Michel is a saving man,
and he uses very mean tobacco, the cheapest in the house."

"You see how I am situated, monsieur. It is no use to talk to me."

"But Michel Pensonneau is not going to trouble you long. He has
relations at Cahokia, in the Illinois Territory, and he is fitting
himself out to go there to settle."

"Are you sure of this, monsieur?"

"Certainly I am, for we have already made him a bill of credit to our
correspondent at Cahokia. He wants very few goods to carry across