“M'sieu', I have never thought of that. Perhaps we have more than a million people--many of them children, for you understand we French-Canadians have large families--but of course the children could not fight. Still, we should not like to have them subject to a German Emperor. We would fight against that, if the war came to us here on our own soil.” “But don't you see that the only way to keep it from coming to you on your own soil is to fight against it over there? Hasn't the English Government given you all your liberties, for home and church?” “Yes, M'sieu', especially since Sir Wilfred Laurier. Ah, that is a great man! A true French-Canadian!” “Well, then, you know that he is against Germany. You know he believes the freedom of Canada depends on the defeat of Germany, over there, on the other side of the sea. You would not like a German Canada, would you?” “Not at all, M'sieu', that would be intolerable. But I have never thought of that.” “Well, think of it now, will you? And tell your priest to think of it, too. He is a Christian. The things we are fighting for belong to Christianity--justice, liberty, humanity. Tell him that, and tell him also some of the things which the Germans did to the Christian people in Belgium and Northern France. I will narrate them to you later.” “M'sieu',” says Iside, dipping his paddle deeper as we round the sharp corner of a rock, “I shall remember all that you tell me, and I shall tell it again to our priest. You know we have few newspapers here. Most of us could not read them, anyway. I am not well convinced that we yet comprehend, here in French Canada, the meaning of this war. But we shall endeavor to comprehend it better. And when we comprehend, we shall be ready to do our duty--you can trust yourself to the men of _Sacre Coeur_ for that. We love peace--we all about here _(nous autres d'icite)--but we can fight like the devil when we know it is for a good cause--liberty, for example._ Meanwhile would M'sieu' like to stop at the pool _'La Pinette'_ on the way down and try a couple of casts? There was a big salmon rising there yesterday.” That very evening a runner comes up the river, through the woods, to tell Iside and Eugene, who are Selectmen of the community of _Sacre Coeur,_ that they must come down to the village for an important meeting at ten o'clock the next morning. So they set off, quite as a matter of course, for their thirty-five mile tramp through the forest in the dark. They are good citizens, as well as good woodsmen, you understand. On the second day they are back again at their work in the canoe. “Well, Iside,” I ask, “how was it with the meeting yesterday? All correct?”