The boss did not wish him to go and said so plainly; but you know Francois-a man not be thwarted when a notion entered his head.

He answered that he was set on going to the lake for the holidays, and that go he would.

Then the boss let him have his way, afraid to lose a man useful beyond the common, and of such experience in the bush." Eutrope Gagnon was speaking with unusual ease, slowly, but without seeking words, as though his story had been shaped beforehand.

Amid her overwhelming grief the thought flitted through Maria's heart:--"Francois wished to come here ...

to me," and a fugitive joy touched it as a swallow in flight ruffles the water with his wing.
"The shanty was not very far in the woods, only two days' journey from the Transcontinental which passes La Tuque.