FullReads

“‘Bargon,’ I say–and I give him a horn of old rye–‘here’s to le bon Dieu!’

“‘Le bon Dieu, and a good harvest!’ he say.

“I hear some one give a long breath behin’, and I look round; but, no, it is Norinne with a smile–for she never grumble–bagosh! What purty eyes she have in her head! She have that Marie in her arms, and I say to Bargon it is like the Madonne in the Notre Dame at Montreal. He nod his head. ‘C’est le bon Dieu–it is the good God,’ he say.

“Before I go I take a piece of palm–it come from the Notre Dame; it is all bless by the Pope–and I nail it to the door of the house. ‘For luck,’ I say. Then I laugh, and I speak out to the prairie: ‘Come along, good summer; come along, good crop; come two hunder’ and fifty dollars for Gal Bargon.’ Ver’ quiet I give Norinne twenty dollar, but she will not take him. ‘For Marie,’ then I say: ‘I go to marry him, bimeby.’ But she say: ‘Keep it and give it to Marie yourself some day.’

“She smile at me, then she have a little tear in her eye, and she nod to where Bargon stare’ houtside, and she say: ‘If this summer go wrong, it will kill him. He work and work and fret and worry for me and Marie, and sometimes he just sit and look at me and say not a word.’

“I say to her that there will be good crop, and next year we will be ver’ happy. So, the time go on, and I send up a leetla snack of pork and molass’ and tabac, and sugar and tea, and I get a letter from Bargon bimeby, and he say that heverything go right, he t’ink, this summer. He say I must come up. It is not dam easy to go in the summer, when the mill run night and day; but I say I will go.

“When I get up to Bargon’s I laugh, for all the hunder’ acre is ver’ fine, and Bargon stan’ hin the door, and stretch out his hand, and say: ‘Rachette, there is six hunder’ dollar for me.’ I nod my head, and fetch out a horn, and he have one, his eyes all bright like a lime-kiln. He is thin and square, and his beard grow ver’ thick and rough and long, and his hands are like planks. Norinne, she is ver’ happy, too, and Marie bite on my finger, and I give him sugar-stick to suck.

“Bimeby Norinne say to me, ver’ soft: ‘If a hailstorm or a hot wind come, that is the end of it all, and of my poor Gal.’

“What I do? I laugh and ketch Marie under the arms, and I sit down, and I put him on my foot, and I sing that dam funny English song–‘Here We Go to Banbury Cross.’ An’ I say: ‘It will be all as happy as Marie pretty quick. Bargon he will have six hunder’ dollar, and you a new dress and a hired girl to help you.’

“But all the time that day I think about a hail-storm or a hot wind whenever I look out on that hunder’ acre farm. It is so beautiful, as you can guess–the wheat, the barley, the corn, the potatoes, the turnip, all green like sea-water, and pigeons and wild ducks flying up and down, and the horse and the ox standing in a field ver’ comfer’ble.

“We have good time that day, and go to bed all happy that night. I get up at five o’clock, an’ I go hout. Bargon stan’ there looking hout on his field with the horse-bridle in his hand. ‘The air not feel right,’ he say to me. I t’ink the same, but I say to him: ‘Your head not feel right–him too sof’.’ He shake his head and go down to the field for his horse and ox, and hitch them up together, and go to work making a road.