"Our country must have been deeply rooted in your hearts to cause you to speak thus," said Oliver.
"We are a brave people," cried the stranger.
"I am sure of it," responded Oliver.
"Thank you," replied the stranger, "you cause me great pleasure."
"Now that we know one another as countrymen, suppose we make more intimate acquaintance?"
"I ask nothing better. If you like, I will tell you my history as briefly as possible."
"I am attention," said Oliver.
"My father was a baby when Canada was definitively abandoned in 1758 by the French, an act which was perpetrated without consulting the population of New France. Had the mother country have done so, it would have been met by a flat refusal. But I will avoid politics, and speak only of my family."
"Good. I hate politics."
"So do I. Well, one day my grandfather Berger, after being absent a week, came to his home in Québec in company with an Indian in his full war paint. The first thing he saw, standing by the side of the cradle in which lay my father, was my grandmother, her arms raised in the air, with a heavy iron-dog, with which she was menacing an English soldier; my grandmother was a brave and courageous woman."