Show the fhe plain plu IM 1 I 1 S 0 r Alm oliver 0 pro 11 L THE STORY CHAPTER I 1 with hla his english wit wife catherine and twelve cearold son on joe jeems ns henri bblain kronen 1 ch battler tn n canada in 1749 cultivates vate s a fertile farm adjacent ent to the jurle aarle As the story opens the bblain family Is on its ita way home from rom a visit to the Tonte Tont ius eurs catherines wandering brother meets meats them LI hepsibah an is 1 his 1 custom has brought presents for or hi hla ulster ister and iid her family to jeems he h gives a pierce piece ot of crimson ie t laughingly telling the boy it Is I 1 to I 1 iu a present from jeems to toinette Tol nette Tonte tir small daughter of the tha set el agne r also gives jeems a jil stol bidding him perfect himself in marksmanship tor for the people of 0 the frontier ure constantly in tear fear of raids Y ly inglish indian war parties I 1 allies ot of the CHAPTER lil Hepa iban fears ears for or th the e safety of the bullins in their isolated isoa a ted position but genrl 1 laughs at the th idea of danger seems jeems presents the v eivet to toinette Yol nette her cousin paul cache ache a few years older than jeems on trives it to throw the lie parcel away ems besen ta the action and attacks aul but tile latter the smaller CHAPTER IV continued am ale spring men the beginning or summer followed arrival at the bulala home and still he gave no betrayal of the restlessness which presaged tits his usual disappearance for or another long period into the fast bessei nesses of the world this season of 0 the year wis was always one of torment for the forest dwellers beci because tivie of the winged pests pest i which crawled the earth and filled the air ard and teems jeems had come to dread it ir its as an indescribable nightmare of discomfort and suffering from the first of tune jurie until the middle middie of august such plagues of mosquitoes bred and multiplied in n the swamps and lowlands and woods that beasts were half devoured alive and the pioneers literally fought for their own existence smoking alit lr cabins incessantly cohering yering co their flesh with w ith hog fat and hear bear grease and resorting to every known knon subtlety that they tal might ait snatch a little sleep at night within a few days dais it seemed to jeems a world that had been a paradise of flowers of sweet scents of ripening fruits and deamons lell cons air was transformed into n hell of bf insect life which shut shat out trivel travel tit in all direction a art and which invested Invest rd with polso poisonous nou torture every spot where it was not partly subjugated by fire and smoke the timber was heavy and dark swamps were rivers and lakes were shadowed by dense vegetation and in the humid sweating mold of these places the malevolent was lorn born and rose in clouds that sometimes obscured the 1 face ice of the moon during dining these weeks a cordon of decayed stumps and ant doirs smoldered night and day about the main cabin screening it in pungent smoke and outside this small haven work on the farm was continued at it a price of physical martyrdom except under a burning sun when the insects sought refuge from tile the pare gare and heat beat jeems did not go again to Tont eur manor though occasionally he heard news from the every one was ivas in high humor there because of the flie activities solus coln on in preparation for tile the exit of the entire family for quebec early in september tobnette Tol nette wis was going to school nt at the lie convent of the jems jeems had 1 a l feeling of loss it ft was as if the fire of his creams had not wily burned itself out hut but even the ash were being cleared away autumn came and with it a great glory alory in the wilderness jeems loved these mattier days of golden ripeness of first frosts of painted hardwood forests and of crisp tangy air ar when nil all life seemed rejuvenated and his own velna veins danced to the thrill of unending promises anil and expectations slit but this year a heaviness of heart was in him film with bilth tit thia changing of the seasons tobnette Tol nette and her people left for quebec and one evening a week later hepsibah gravely announced that lie he rould could no longer delay his departure for the far frontiers of pennsylvania and the alir where e his obligations as a trader called film li lm catherine was s silent for a clale then cried softly to herself jeems drew back where his uncle would not see gee him clearly nils cheerfulness died out like a lighted candle extinguished by a breath of wind face was grimly set so hard ant ft ad lie flating to halda im ida eoln arti in n ha rr HP M n arsa I 1 iseri that he would never again remain awny away long at a time ile he would return during the winter if he be failed to come they would know he was dead when henri got out of his bed to build the fire the next morning hepsibah was gone ile he had stolen off like a shadow in some idill s hlll hour of the night more afore determinedly than when his acle had been with him jeems continued nt at his work and at the mental efforts with which he was struggling to reach out into the mountains and alleys vs of experience ahead of hint him through the fall and winter the eulain cabin was visited by wandering indians who had learned that food warmth and a welcome were always there jeems friendship for them was tempered by the things had told him alq and while he brought himself closer into intimacy with these uninvited guests winning their confidence and milking making himself more effa clent in their spew speech h he was also watching and listening tor for the signs of hidden dangers against which his uncle had repeatedly warned him I 1 most of the indians were from the I 1 canada tithes and among them he found no cause for unrest but when occasionally an onondaga or in an onelda came lie he detected in their manner it quiet and sleepless caution which aich told him these visitors from w the six nations considered themselves over the dead line which marked the country of their enemies and he made note that tant they always came through that part of forbidden valley which Heps iball had predicted would be a future warpath karpath for the mohawks Mo Alo hawks tills this winter he went farther in big ad captain pipe the old caughnawaga had find a habit of spending several of the hardest weeks near the Bu bullins lains and with his two sons song white eyes and big eat cut being traveled to the shores of luke lake cann plain for the first time he was pone gone a week and planned with his friends to make a longer expedition the following year na as far as crown point and a place called ticonderoga where the french were going to build a jort fort some day on this excursion he experienced perien ced the real thrill of danger for white eyes and big cat both of 0 whom were young braves who had won their spurs with it a caution canston which was eloquent lit in its SIN with tobnette Tol nette and her peoli ke away from the jeems jearus had no lipsI hesitation tation tn in going to the richelieu and triable trips there with ills his father on snowshoes and in march du during ring a break in a spell of intense cold he went alone and remained overnight in the house of the barons overseer with whose young people lie he had becot become jae acquainted quain ted this overseer teter peter lubeck an old veteran tor for whom held a warn warm affe affection cdon and through his son peter ieter the younger jeems had his first news of tollette Tol To nette illette site she was at the school and her parents had bad taken a fashionable house in st louis street bleter said wrote in every letter to his hl father that lie he was homesick to jet et back bac k to the richelieu As another spring and summer followed those which had gone before jeems knew he was fighting something that had to be conquered a yearning for tobnette Tol nette which filled him with a bitter loneliness when its hold was strongest for two years tobnette Tol nette remal nd 11 in quebec without making a visit to the Ill chelleu during these years the tragedy of his divided birth was forced upon teems jeems there aber was no doubt that the Engli bli in him was uppermost or that the urge in his blood was toward trie southern front frontiers lErs and the col onles onlea of adams yet he loved the place where he lived with a sincere passion the rig big forest forbidden valley till all the miles of wilder ness about him as far as he could look to the horizons this was new france it was his fathers country and not his mothers between his father and himself had grown up which nothing could break I 1 but his worship for his mother was I 1 a dil different thin thing as it if something be sides motherhood hound bound him to her ills his friends had increased in number I 1 lie he came to know people along the Mc Ill chelleu belleu but was always conscious he was not entirely one of them i words and her hatred for I 1 him persisted in his memory and kept recal recalling linz uth late in august ot of the second year of her absence tobnette Tol nette returned to manor for a month jeems h heart e art ached with the old yearning but he did not go to the paul tache and his mother were also at the barons and he felt a sense of relief when he learned that all of them were on their way to quebec with the exception of Tont eur who remained for the harvesting of crops A fortnight after they had gone peter told him about tobnette Tol nette and paul tache ile he had scarcely car cely recognized tobnette Tol nette he said she had grown taller and more beautiful tache was a full grown man and dressed like a young noble one with half an eye could see that he was desperately in love with Tol toinette nette peter avowed but if he were a judge of such affairs and he considered himself to be that tache was a long way from a realization of his big desires even taking tender years into consideration she granted him no favors there had actually seemed to be a coolness in her attitude toward him petars Pet words stirred jeems with in a satisfaction which he be did not let the other see and not until he was on his apy home did lie pull himself from the folly of his thoughts about tobnette Tol nette even if she were not smiling on tache as aa warmly as he had supposed he knew she was its as for far removed from him now as the sun wits was from the earth yet as time went on this fresh contact with her presence though lie lead h ad not seen her gave a determined impetus to Ms big plans for the future there were hours in which he saw himself a splendid enemy where fate had ordained that he could not be a friend with increasing maturity giving to him a deeper and more under ot funding standing for his mother and a fuller comprehension of the noble qualities in tits his father lie he was harassed by a of emotions which he revealed to neither and confided only in hepsibah adams who had returned from his trip the difficulty of solving the problem which confronted jeems was us its great for catherines brother as it would have been for catherine Cn therine herself for as early as the spring of 1753 when jeems had passed his sixteenth year there theire was noo no longer a doubt in the minds of the people of the colonies and new france us its to the surety of the struggle which was impending while france and england were vere oell chally at pence the forces of the two countries in america were on the verge erge of open war and were instigating the indians Ind law to a strife of ex termination nution everywhere along the unprotected front frontiers leri the indians were killing end and durnin i and such vast sums were being expended by both s ldes for human hair that scores of uhlie and taken up tile the lucrative business of hunting for scalps almost tit nt the door to jeems home war were tit lit progress for every landed baron along the kich olen wits was training ills his vassal farmers fur mers ind 1111 when the wind was right the Imi could hear faintly the twice a tiring firing n of muskets at ieng free of the seIgneur fal rote ellin mid find laws henri did not go iii I ii or ir did jeems Tc eras yet ton toil spur pur rode arf frequently to their home 1 4 bally when hepsibah was ahert ho hf wits was in fit better spirits than usual and it was nil tin of Tol tobnette nette li lia said mild she wits homesick for taw her letters to him blin WIT billed with at a longing for it an and sin she that in another twelve when alien her g would hp be Mid sheil site she wanted ti it live nt at tile iiii inor Ilor and not in quebec opie bec that wi wa enouf ii to make him bapty and it li bied at the thought of danger fui for W long along tile the in fit the th fortified placer the english unit and their es would not get nearer than nhsin tile tha lower end of lake inke chim plain when war ennie and they be driven from there very shortly and also from lake lahe george but on such an outlying farm as the bblain which had no protection whatever there was the possible peril of wandering fig scalp hunters and he never tired of urging henri and catherine to make their home within the safety of the alie he asked jeems and henri to come to his drill and that they did not respond made no difference in his friendship ile he could understand how bow hard it would be tor for henri to prepare for war against his cifes country and his secret adoration for catherine was greater because of her courage and her faith in both peoples with the catastrophe so near it delighted him to think that hla his own confidence was a comfort to her and the eagerness wilh which she sha accepted his opinions as a soldier encouraged him to go be what considered intelligent tell igent bounds in giving easement to her mind he did not guess what was in jeems heart nor did the boys father or mother only hepsibah knew fully what was there early in the autumn the trader took jeems on a journey to the english fort on luke lake Ol george eorge thence traveling into the new york country returning in november To vember they found a change in catherine she was not less confident or less contented in the paradise she was helping to build but soi something had come into her life which she was accepting bravely and courageously and even with pride one evening she spoke of the military activities along the richelieu many river youths were training with their elders she said and it did not seem right that jeems should not be among them while killing was wicked and inexcusable cu sable it was a god given privilege to defend ories ones home and family abe quoted to substantiate her belief that war would never reach them and she knew that teems jeems would not seek it any more than his fits father but she thought it would do no harm for jeems to prepare himself along with the other young men of the seigne urle 0 to this suggestion home ly philosophy mode made objection ile he told fl father atherine lne the day was coming when beins would be compelled to fight and that lie he would have to choose one side bid T r the other to champion when that thal day arrived sentiment would not fund in the way for with a corli in n turmoil about them one could not he english and french at the same kinle no man could tell or on which ode ide they alipy would be when forced to it ind as he despised despise a traitor more than anything iny thing else it was hl hist opinion ahn teems should not be taught the ways of 4 war under the flag of france ant am then it intent he be fight for the ens eng rah As a frontiersman he main that the finest fighting man was wa he fie long biffle a free wanderer of the forests a leather stocking trained to 4 n hundred grenter greater things than the firing ng of a musket in company with n score of others that was what jew jeems hould be As a long rifle mile he could arve where honor and ant duty called him when the act became necessary this discussion was the |