“‘Come here, you Jolycœur,’ called La Salle.”—Page 138.
Jolycœur lifted a quick look, and dropping itagain, replied, “Sieur de la Salle, I was waiting for the cook to hand me out the dishes you ordered against you came back.”
La Salle examined him through half-shut eyes. It was this man’s constant duty to prepare his food. Tonty and his brother Jean had so occupied his morning that he had found no time for eating. A man inured to hardships can fast with very little thought about the matter, but he decided if Jolycœur had not yet handled this meal he might hazard some last service from a man who had missed so many opportunities.
“Did you cook my breakfast?” he inquired.
“Sieur de la Salle, I dared not put my nose in the bakehouse. This cook is the worst man in Fort Frontenac.”
The cook appearing with full hands in his door, La Salle said to Jolycœur, “Carry those platters into the lodge,” and he watched the minutest action of the man’s elbows, walking behind him into the lower apartment of the dwelling. A table stood there on which Jolycœur began to arrange the dishes with surly carelessness.
The explorer forgot him the moment they entered, for two people occupied this room in close talk. Challenging whatever ill Jacques le Ber and the Abbé Cavelier had prepared, La Salle advanced beyond the table with the chill and defiant bearing natural to him.
“Monsieur le Ber and I have been discussing this alliance you are so anxious to make with his family,” spoke the Abbé.