The days of waiting, unloading, loading, feasting, and contending being over, the Montreal voyageurs turned their faces homeward, and with flags afloat, paddled away, now cheerfully singing sweet "Alouette."
"Ma mignonette, embrassez-moi.
Nenni, Monsieur, je n'oserais,
Car si mon papa le savait."
(My darling, smile on me.
No! No! good sir, I do not dare,
My dear papa would know! would know!)
"But who would tell papa?"
"The birds on the forest tree."