So we left him to the admiring comments of the new-comers. I think it should be added, in extenuation of what would otherwise seem a gross imposture, that his granddaughter was really ignorant of Crély's exact age—that he, being ever a gasconading fellow, was quite ready to personate that certain Joseph Crély whose name appears on the baptismal records of the Church in Detroit of the year 1726. He was, moreover, pleased with the idea of being gaily dressed and going on a tour to see the world, and doubtless rejoiced, also, in the prospect of relieving his poor granddaughter of a part of the burden of his maintenance. He was probably at this time about ninety-five years of age. There are those that knew him from 1830, who maintain that his age was a few years less; but I take the estimate of Mr. Kinzie and H.L. Dousman, of Prairie du Chien, who set him down, in 1864, at about the age I have assigned to him.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Corn which has been parboiled, shelled from the cob, and dried in the sun.]
[Footnote 2: Literally, crazy oats. It is the French name for the
Menomonees.]
[Footnote 3: Le Forgeron, or Blacksmith, a Menomonee chief.]
[Footnote 4: A niece of James Fenimore Cooper.]
[Footnote 5: Master—or, to use the emphatic Yankee term, boss.]
[Footnote 6: Michaud climbed into a plum-tree, to gather plums. The branch broke. Michaud fell! Where is he? He is down on the ground. No, he is up in the tree.]
[Footnote 7: The supposed Dauphin of France.]