"_Mon Dieu_!" he exclaimed, and looked all about, around, then at last up.
"Ah! _Bon jour_, Mademoiselle!" he said, smiling and taking off his old fur cap.

"You spik also my language, Mademoiselle ?" "_Mais oui_, Monsieur," rejoined Josephine; and addressed him further in a few sentences on trivial topics.

Then, suddenly resolved, she stepped out of her own room, passed softly down the stair, out through the wide central hall, and so, having encountered no one, joined the ancient man on the lawn.

It chanced he had been at labor directly in front of one of the barred lower windows.

He now left his spade and stepped apart, essaying now a little broken English.
"You seeng my song al_so_, Mademoiselle?
You like the old song from Canadian village, aye?
I seeng heem many tam, me." "Who are you ?" demanded Josephine.
"Me, I am Eleazar, the ol' trap' man.