Show n i 1 ne he ur n i lady ir u s of f Peri bonka od ver ay iy lames curwood I 1 berri bertle ac 1020 doubleday dorna 6 co inc CHAPTER I 1 this story la is going to start like a lesson in geography this la Is because became it la Is largely a chronicle of real events in human lives als ulsery Ul sory whether of things or people rests upon the baste basic necessity of possessing certain aspects of situation which we encompass within the terms of latitude and longitude the following narrative would bould quite profoundly miss its real at drama it if it were to ignore the points of the compass and the manner in which fate played with them to bring about an unusual combination of ends enda we will begin with Cerl bonka onka perl peri bonka Is a quaint little french cann cana than dlan village which nestles on the shore hore of the glorious Perl borika river four nilles miles above lac st jean in the province of quebec it ts to made up almost entirely of a single row of thirty or forty houses all of which face the river should one adventure a little farther into the wilderness after haying made the wonderful nay trip up froni from quebec to ua Us ha bay or chicoutimi Chicou timi and como come to know perl per bonka for himself he will understand why the houses are situated with no neighbors or obstructions between them and the river for the river to la a living breathing god sent thing to the french speaking people of the place about whose drowsy lives there still remains like a sweet scented veil of old did lavender lace face the simplicity of their great great grandrath ers ere of a hundred and fifty years ago za in contrast to the roaring passion ate fifteen miles away the Perl bonka Is peculiarly like the men and women and children who inhabit it a few acres of its shores it has bas 1 believe given to thorn much of their character for of all tile hit people in the habitant country those of Pert Peri bonka tire are the gentlest anil and most lovable lov uble even in the of spring it Is not an angry or menacing river and in winter it Is so genially smooth and well frozen that the habitant farmers use it for their horse races or as a trall trail by which to come t to 0 town in spite of its treat great size a and nd the vast forces behind it the kindness and gentleness of its nature must have mails made its people chat they are i the men are truthful their morals are right they believe in god its as well as in spirits they tire cleno and courteous and hospitable the women are bright eyed clear skinned un bobbed pretty obese people are ar always looking toward the river it in the evening when they go eo te tc bed in the morning when they get up they have built their little church facing it and the good father sleeps with his bedroom window opening upon apon it the local cemetery occupies an acre of ball hallowed owed ground within a hundred feet of the waters edge A venerable monastery Is built at the mouth of it until quite recently the two happiest people in the village of verl bonka were maria and her b husband u osband samuel they are still happy a although saint samuel el Is a bit overcast at present because of a financial loss which has come coma to him for years samuel haa bah run tits his little store and maria her ki tchon in which she prepares delectable brents trents for the lie few transients who come their way and until onell ahli abl recent time to which I 1 have referred there Is good reason to believe slie she was the happiest woman to in her little world now there Is another they call her the crippled lady she Is often seen been sitting billing on the wide veranda of a quaint little home it in it a garden of llo bowers ers just this side of the church there Is a road which completely encircles lae lac st SL jean connecting the villages cad farms in its narrow rim of nf civilization and during the tourist season occasional automobiles pass through Perl bonka their occupants always stare at the crippled lady it she happens to be on her porch she Is a vision of loveliness which one cannot easily forget women talk about her end and men sile silently atlY bear away a 11 picture of her in their hearts iler her beauty if one has only a moments moment Is contemplation of it strikes almost with a shock it I 1 is slavic thick dark shining hair drown drawn smoothly back a face clearly abito as a nuns unforgettable eyes a jim blim beautiful figure in it a big chair lind something else it Is 19 that other thing which p photographs hol her so vividly and so per manant lv upon ones onea consciousness S perhaps it Is some time before one realizes that what he be has seen is t not beauty alone but happiness the crippled lady who cannot walk who cannot stand alone Is 19 happy and she covets nothing which god has not dot already given her voice tells you that tha t the people of Perl bonka bouka love th this Is charming foreigner who has made her home among them the women are not jealous of her site she makes the significance of purity and beauty nearer and more comprehensive tor for the merl men the church prayed tor for her when she was very sick she Is of all religions just loving god ao 90 that even the st ernest of the monks in their grim white walls down near the take lake a speak peak and think of her ber tenderly ly the children worship ter ler ond and tile lilg wide porch of her home has become a shrine tor for them in youth tui cont lunea to grol gro up ap into wan hood lind womanhood believing with great faith to in the visible existence of s spirits both good and bad and in the var varied led and frequent manifestations of it divine interest and watchfulness so the children n have come to believe that it was a miracle which sent bent the crippled lady through the doors of death and then brought her safely back again that she might remain with them always even the mothers and fathers believe this just as surely BS as they believe it Is a sho to steal from ones neighbor or speak falsehood against him thus works the hand of god the good has said so the church believes it too they all know her story and that story Is an epic which will live for a long time in the country about lac st jean I 1 doubt dorat if it will villi die until the balled so called progress of industrially active man thrusts up op ta is grimy hand and inundates it along with the quaintness and beauty and satisfying nearness to god of living up there it to Is this story I 1 have set out oat to tell with a bit of geography to begin with who the crippled lady Is and why she Is there bow she bravely tried to give up her life for another womans comans husband and why she lives today so happily in Peri bouka CHAPTER 11 II it ts Is unusual th that a t an andlar should be born in one of the wealthiest fam am illes in new york yet it happened A traveler to the alty of brantford ont will find within a few miles m lies of the town n little chunh built for the indians by king george the third and close about it an old cemetery in which rests the dust of tile the last 0 of f the great iroquois Iro quola war warriors r fors and c chiefs in ID a tomb built of at w which Is green with age find and moss lies greatest of 0 all the mo hawks arid and more commonly known as joseph brant headers of the romance as well a no the act of ill history story may recall the day alen sir william johnson the liongs arm in the colonies first saw sav r sister he was attending a muster of his big county militia when allen on an I 1 carne came ga galloping by with a beautiful indian girl of sixteen riding ly behind him sir william whose alfa had recently rei antly died caught B n vision of lovely dark eyes and ot of flowing black hair streaming tn in a c cloud I 1 oud behind a form of barp symmetry and grace erace find and in that the heart of the lonely and sim widower ati als smitten so deeply that even evening an y found molly brant in johnson ensile I 1 w where here she remained thenceforth lt its in mistress and the idol of its proprietor geography and history skip a hundred and thirty fire years after this event until they arrive at the birth of tile the indian boy on fifth avenue when james kirke married molly craddock Craddo cb neither thought very much about the strain of indian blood tn in hollys veins excel sicily molly was always secretly proud of it kirlie was not 13 0 t the kind of man to boast of ancestors or even to think about them for he lind had one consuming ambition from tile lie beg lunIng and that ras to pyramid lis ids inherited millions into ever increasing abdill power ile he beinke bo so completely absorbed in this taste task that after a few years molly wa was 8 left very largely to whatever dreams she may have tind of the picturesque tur esque and romantic past and to an absorbing a love for her young son eon paul S she lie told him many of the pretty tories stories 8 arid and some 0 of the tragic ones which deeds had bad written in the lives of their ancestors ance and twice she went with him to the ancient burial place near brantford and sat bat beside the tomb of and ana tried to make him see as clearly as herself the stirring days when molly brant came with trusses tresses flying before sir william johnson Job TO BE CONTINUED |