INDIAN CUSTOMS AND DANCES
Before we had any right to look for my husband’s return, I one day received a message inviting me to come up to the new house. We all went in a body, for we had purposely staid away a few days, expecting this summons, of which we anticipated the meaning.
Plante, in full glee, was seated astride of a small keg on the roof, close beside the kitchen chimney, on the very summit of which he had planted a green bough. To this he held fast with one hand, while he exultingly waved the other and called out,
“Eh! ban, Madame John! à cette heure, pour le rigal!”
“Yes, Plante, you are entitled to a treat, and I hope you will not enjoy it the less that Pillon and Manaigre are to share it with you.”
A suitable gratification made them quite contented with their “bourgeoise,” against whom Plante had sometimes been inclined to grumble, “because,” as he said, “she had him called up too early in the morning.” He might have added, because, too, she could not understand the philosophy of his coming in to work in his own garden, under the plea that it was too wet and rainy to work in Monsieur John’s.
It was with no ordinary feelings of satisfaction, that we quitted the old log tenement for our new dwelling, small and insignificant though it was.
I was only too happy to enjoy the luxury of a real bed-chamber, in place of the parlor floor which I had occupied as such for more than two months. It is true that our culinary arrangements were still upon no improved plan. The clay chimney was not of sufficient strength to hold the trammel and pot-hooks, which, at that day had not been quite superseded by the cooking-stove and kitchen-range. Our fire was made as in the olden time, with vast logs behind, and smaller sticks in front, laid across upon the andirons or dogs. Upon the sticks were placed such of the cooking-utensils as could not be accommodated on the hearth, but woe to the dinner or the supper, if through a little want of care or scrutiny one treacherous piece was suffered to burn away. Down would come the whole arrangement—kettles, saucepans, burning brands, and cinders, in one almost inextricable mass. How often this happened under the supervision of Harry or little Josette, while the mistress was playing lady to some visitor in the parlor, “'twere vain to tell.”
Then, spite of Mons. Plante’s palisades round the chimney, in a hard shower the rain would come pelting down, and, the hearth unfortunately sloping a little the wrong way, the fire would become extinguished; while the bark on the roof, failing to do its duty, we were now and then so completely deluged, that there was no resource but to catch up the breakfast or dinner and tuck it under the table until better times—that is, till fair weather came again. In spite of all these little adverse occurrences, however, we enjoyed our new quarters exceedingly.
Our garden was well furnished with vegetables, and even the currant bushes which we had brought from Chicago with us, tied in a bundle at the back of the carriage, had produced us some fruit.