"I did not dare stir. It grew darker and all the air was sweet with falling dews and the river fragrance, and the leaves rustled together, the stars came out for there was no moon to check them. On the Beaufeit farm they were having a dance. Susanne Beaufeit had been married that noon in St. Anne. The sound of the fiddles came down like strange voices from out the woods and I was that frightened--" "Poor Pani!" caressing the hand tenderly. "Then you stopped sobbing but you had tight hold of my neck. Suddenly I gathered you up and ran with all my might to Touchas' hut. The curtain was up and the fire was burning, and I had grown stiff with cold and just stumbled on the floor, laying you down. Touchas was so amazed. "'Whose child is that?' she said. 'Why, your eyes are like moons. Have you seen some evil thing?'" "And you thought me an evil thing, Pani!" said the child reproachfully. "One never can tell. There are strange things," and the woman shook her head. "And Touchas was so queer she would not touch you at first. I unrolled the torn piece of blanket and there you were, a pretty little child with rings of shining black hair, and fair like French babies, but not white like the English. And there was no sign of Indian about you. But you slept and slept. Then we undressed you. There was a name pinned to your clothes, and a locket and chain about your neck and a tiny ring on one finger. And on your thigh were two letters, 'J. A.,' which meant Jeanne Angelot, Father Rameau said. And oh, Mam'selle, _petite fille_, you slept in my arms all night and in the morning you were as hungry as some wild thing. At first you cried a little for _maman_ and then you laughed with the children. For Touchas' boys were not grown-up men then, and White Fawn had not met her brave who took her up to St. Ignace." "I might have dropped from the clouds," said the child mirthfully. "The Great Manitou could have sent me to you." "But you talked French. Up in the above they will speak in Latin as the good fathers do. That is why they use it in their prayers." Jeanne nodded with a curl of disbelief in her red-rose mouth.