Audrey

They drank standing, kissed the girl who served them, and took to the road

again. There were no more thick woods, the road running in a blaze of

sunshine past clumps of cedars and wayside tangles of blackberry, sumac,

and elder. Presently, beyond a group of elms, came into sight the goodly

college of William and Mary, and, dazzling white against the blue, the

spire of Bruton church.

Within a wide pasture pertaining to the college, close to the roadside and

under the boughs of a vast poplar, half a score of students were at play.

Their lithe young bodies were dark of hue and were not overburdened with

clothing; their countenances remained unmoved, without laughter or

grimacing; and no excitement breathed in the voices with which they

called one to another. In deep gravity they tossed a ball, or pitched a

quoit, or engaged in wrestling. A white man, with a singularly pure and

gentle face, sat upon the grass at the foot of the tree, and watched the

studious efforts of his pupils with an approving smile.

"Wildcats to purr upon the hearth, and Indians to go to school!" quoth

MacLean. "Were you taught here, Hugon, and did you play so sadly?"

The trader, his head held very high, drew out a large and bedizened

snuffbox, and took snuff with ostentation. "My father was of a great

tribe--I would say a great house--in the country called France," he

explained, with dignity. "Oh, he was of a very great name indeed! His

blood was--what do you call it?--blue. I am the son of my father: I am a

Frenchman. Bien! My father dies, having always kept me with him at

Monacan-Town; and when they have laid him full length in the ground,

Monsieur le Marquis calls me to him. 'Jean,' says he, and his voice is

like the ice in the stream, 'Jean, you have ten years, and your

father--may le bon Dieu pardon his sins!--has left his wishes regarding

you and money for your maintenance. To-morrow Messieurs de Sailly and de

Breuil go down the river to talk of affairs with the English Governor. You

will go with them, and they will leave you at the Indian school which the

English have built near to the great college in their town of

Williamsburgh. There you will stay, learning all that Englishmen can teach

you, until you have eighteen years. Come back to me then, and with the

money left by your father you shall be fitted out as a trader. Go!' ...

Yes, I went to school here; but I learned fast, and did not forget the

things I learned, and I played with the English boys--there being no

scholars from France--on the other side of the pasture."

He waved his hand toward an irruption of laughing, shouting figures from

the north wing of the college. The white man under the tree had been

quietly observant of the two wayfarers, and he now rose to his feet, and

came over to the rail fence against which they leaned.