"A map!" gasped Pani, as if it were an evil spirit.
"Why, it is like a picture with lines all about it. This is France. This is Spain. And England, where the English come from. I should think they would—it is such a little place. Ever so many other countries as well. But after all I don't understand about their going round—"
"Come and have some supper."
"We should have seen him anyhow if he had not fallen into the river. And it was funny! If he had heeded what I said—it was lucky we saw the tree as we went down."
"He will give due notice of it, no doubt. The water is so clear that it can easily be seen in the daytime. Otherwise I should feel troubled."
Jeanne nodded with gay affirmation. She was in exuberant spirits, and could hardly eat.
Then they sat out in the doorway, shaded somewhat by the clinging vines. From below there was a sound of music. Up at the Fort the band was playing. There was no moon, but the stars were bright and glittering in strange tints. Now and then a party rather merry with wine and whisky trolled out a noisy stave that had been imported from the mother country years ago about Jacques and his loves and his good wine.
Presently the great bell clanged out. That was a signal for booths to shut, for deerhide curtains to be drawn. Some obstreperous soldiers were marched to the guardhouse. Some drunken revelers crept into a nook beside a storage box or hid in a tangle of vines to sleep until morning.
But in many of the better class houses merriment and gayety went on while the outside decorousness was observed. There was a certain respect paid to law and the new rulers were not so arbitrary as the English had been. Also French prejudices were wearing slowly away while the real characteristics of the race remained.
"I shall not go to school to-day," said Jeanne the next morning. "I will tell the master how it was, and he will pardon me. And I will get two lessons to-morrow, so the children will see that he does not favor me. I think they are sometimes jealous."