te island. The
gun at the fort was like a parting salute, and a shout was raised by
coureurs-de-bois thronging the log wharf. They trooped up to the fur
warehouse, and the sound of a fiddle and the thump of soft-shod feet
were soon heard; for the French were ready to celebrate any occasion
with dancing. Laughter and the high excited voices of women also
came from the little ball-room, which was only the office of the Fur
Company.

Here the engages felt at home. The fiddler sat on the top of the desk,
and men lounging on a row of benches around the walls sprang to their
feet and began to caper at the violin's first invitation. Such maids
and wives as were nearest the building were haled in, laughing, by
their relations; and in the absence of the agents, and of that awe
which goes with making your cross-mark on a paper, a quick carnival
was held on the spot where so many solemn contracts had been signed.
An odor of furs came from the packing-rooms around, mixed with gums
and incense-like whiffs. Added to this was the breath of the general
store kept by the agency. Tobacco and snuff, rum, chocolate, calico,
blankets, wood and iron utensils, fire-arms, West India sugar and
rice,--all sifted their invisible essences on the air. Unceiled joists
showed heavy and brown overhead. But there was no fireplace, for when
the straits stood locked in ice and the island was deep in snow, no
engage claimed admission here. He would be a thousand miles away,
toiling on snow-shoes with his pack of furs through the trees,
or bargaining with trappers for his contribution to this month of
enormous traffic.

Clean buckskin legs and brand-new belted hunting-shirts whirled on the
floor, brightened by sashes of crimson or kerchiefs of orange. Indians
from the reservation on Round Island, who happened to be standing,
like statues, in front of the building, turned and looked with lenient
eye on the performance of their French brothers. The fiddler was a
nervous little Frenchman with eyes like a weasel, and he detected
Jenieve Lalotte putting her head into the room. She glanced from
figure to figure of the dancers, searching through the twilight for
what she could not find; but before he could call her she was off.
None of the men, except a few Scotch-French, were very tall, but
they were a handsome, muscular race, fierce in enjoyment, yet with a
languor which prolonged it, and gave grace to every picturesque pose.
Not one of them wanted to pain L