The Colonel was a man of simple habits.

He had learned these when a soldier, and he brought up his sons to live like himself.

He ate plain food, drank only water, and slept upon a camp-bed with a buffalo-robe and a blanket.

A laundress in Point Coupee kept the linen clean; and Hugot was not near so busy with house affairs as you might suppose.

He made daily journeys to the village--to the market, and the post-office, from which he often brought letters, many of them with large seals, and the arms of a prince upon them! Sometimes, too, after a steamer had called at the landing, parcels arrived containing books--scientific books they were--or curious instruments.