Claude git doze new mash-in' all right,
he go to ingineerin' agin, and him and you [Tarbox] be takin' some
cawntrac' for buil' levee or break up old steamboat, or raise
somet'in' what been sunk, or somet'in' dat way. And den he certain'
want somboddie to boss gang o' fellows. And den he say, 'Papa, I want
you.' And den I say how I got fifty arpent' [42 acres] rice in field.
And den he say, 'How I goin' do widout you?' And den dare be fifty
arpent' rice gone!" No, no fields.

Better: here with the vast wet forest at his back; the river at his
feet; the canal, the key to all Barataria, Lafourche, and Terrebonne,
full of Acadian fishermen, hunters, timber-cutters, moss-gatherers,
and the like; the great city in sight from yonder neighbor's
balustraded house-top; and Claude there to rally to his side or he to
Claude's at a moment's warning; he would be an operator--think of
that!--not of the telegraph; an operator in the wild products of the
swamp, the _prairies tremblantes_, the lakes, and in the small
harvests of the _pointes_ and bayou margins: moss, saw-logs, venison,
wild-duck, fish, crabs, shrimp, melons, garlic, oranges, Perique
tobacco. "Knowledge is power;" he knew wood, water, and sky by heart,
spoke two languages, could read and write, and understood the ways and
tastes of two or three odd sorts of lowly human kind. Self-command is
dominion; I do not say the bottle went never to his lips, but it never
was lifted high. And now to the blessed maxim gotten from Bonaventure
he added one given him by Tarbox: "In h-union ees strank!" Not mere
union of hands alone; but of counsels! There were Claude and Tarbox
and he!

For instance; at Mr. Tarbox's suggestion Claude brought to his father
from the city every evening, now the "Picayune" and now the
"Times-Democrat." From European and national news he modestly turned
aside. Whether he read the book-notices I do not know; I hope not. But
when he had served supper--he was a capital camp cook--and he and
Claude had eaten, and their pipes were lighted, you should have seen
him scanning the latest quotations and debating the fluctuations of
the moss market, the shrimp market, and the garlic market.

Thus Claude was rarely in the city save in the busy hours of the day.
Much oftener than otherwise, he saw the crimson sunsets, and the cool
purple sunrises as he and St. Pierre pulled in the father's skiff
diagonally to or fro across the Mississippi, between their cottage and
t