Marie's mouth and eyes opened in surprise. "Are you quite sure?" with an indrawn breath.
"O yes, sure as that the river runs to the lake. It is what they teach at school. And though it is a great trouble to make yourself remember, and you wonder what it is all about, then at other times you can use the knowledge and are happy and glad over it. There are so many queer things," smiling a little. "And they are not in the catechism or the prayers. The sisters shake their heads over them."
"But can they be quite right?" asked Marie in a kind of awesome tone.
"Why they seem right for the men to know," laughed Jeanne. "How else could they be bartering and counting money? And it is said that Madame Ganeau goes over her husband's books every week since they found Jules Froment was a thief, and kept wrong accounts, putting the money in his own pocket."
Jeanne raised her voice triumphantly.
"Oh, here they are!" cried Cecile followed by a string of girls. "And look, they have found a harvest, their pails are almost full. You mean, selfish things!"
"Why you had the same right to be hunting everywhere," declared Jeanne stoutly. "We found a good place and we picked—that is all there is of it."
"But you might have called us."
Jeanne laughed in a tantalizing manner.
"O Jeanne Angelot, you think yourself some great things because you live inside the stockade and go to a school where they teach all manner of lies to the children. Your place is out in some Indian wigwam. You're half Indian, anyhow."