It cannot be supposed that the relations of the two squaws could be cordial when they found themselves alone together. Their being sisters made it none the less intolerable to be, or to have been, supplanted. Thérèse felt injured now, and Fidèle remembered the wrongs and the jealousy of fifteen years. It was not many days before they came to blows, scolding, screaming, scratching, and pulling handfuls of each other's hair, till a crowd of squaws had gathered from the surrounding cabins; when Paul, the lord and master, appeared upon the scene, and, in the grand heroic manner of the wilderness and its uncontaminated sons, took down his cudgel from the wall, and belabouring them both with soundness and impartiality, commanded them to desist. Was it not shocking, dear lady? Yet, it was only one of those shocking things which have been going on from the foundation of the world--which are going on still, in Egypt, Russia, and elsewhere. The strong use a stick to the weak, and order, of a sort, is maintained. We know better, and have changed all that, and we go on improving, though it may still be a question how it is going to answer in the end. It is the weakest and the shrillest voiced, with us, who rule. The burly and the peaceable stop their ears, and yield to escape the din. By-and-bye we shall have all the ignorant to make our laws and instruct us. Shall we be better off, I wonder? When every one is master, who will serve? When all become commissioned officers, who will be left to fill the ranks? There was worse yet in store for Thérèse, however. Fidèle must needs go to mass in that well-watched community. In Brant she could please herself, but in Caughnawaga there were ladies of the convent to be pleased, who were so bountiful. Fidèle's re-appearance came thus officially before the Père Théophile. Scandal must be prevented, Paul could not be permitted the luxury of two wives at once, however capable he might be of keeping them both in order. More, it was the newcomer, in this case, who was the lawful wife. Thérèse must go, and he laid his injunction on Paul accordingly. Paul was submissive; one squaw was enough to mind his comfort, and it mattered not which, though, if anything, the boy's mother would suit the best. He obeyed with promptitude, and after administering a parting beating, he turned the three forlorn ones out of doors.