Claude nodded, and extended a strong hand to a.s.sist his wife in sliding to the ground. Then, accompanied by his boys, he jogged slowly after the wagon to the barn, where the oxen would be unyoked, and the grasping pitcher would lift the load in two or three mouthfuls to the mows.
Bidiane threw down her rake and ran to the fence for some raspberries, and while her hands were busy with the red fruit, her bright eyes kept scanning the road. She watched a foot-pa.s.senger coming slowly from the station, pausing at the corner, drifting in a leisurely way towards the inn, and finally, after a glance at Mirabelle Marie"s conspicuous gown, climbing the fence, and moving deliberately towards her.
"H"m--a snake in the gra.s.s," murmured Bidiane, keeping an eye on the new arrival, and presently she, too, made her way towards her aunt and Claudine, who had ceased work and were seated on the hay.
"This is Nannichette," said Mirabelle Marie, somewhat apprehensively, when Bidiane reached them.
"Yes, I know," said the girl, and she nodded stiffly to the woman, who was almost as fat and as easy-going as Mirabelle Marie herself.
Nannichette was half Acadien and half English, and she had married a pure Indian who lived back in the woods near the Sleeping Water Lake.
She was not a very desirable acquaintance for Mirabelle Marie, but she was not a positively bad woman, and no one would think of shutting a door against her, although her acquaintance was not positively sought after by the scrupulous Acadiens.
"We was gabbin" about diggin" for gold one day, Nannichette and I," said Mirabelle Marie, insinuatingly. "She knows a heap about good places, and the good time to dig. You tell us, Biddy,--I mean Bidiane,--some of yer yarns about the lake. Mebbe there"s some talk of gold in "em."
Bidiane sat down on the hay. If she talked, it would at least prevent Nannichette from pouring her nonsense into her aunt"s ear, so she began. "I have not yet seen this lake of _L"Eau Dormante_, but I have read of it. Long, long ago, before the English came to this province, and even before the French came, there was an Indian encampment on the sh.o.r.es of this deep, smooth, dark lake. Many canoes shot gaily across its gla.s.sy surface, many camp-fires sent up their smoke from among the trees to the clear, blue sky. The encampment was an old, old one. The Indians had occupied it for many winters; they planned to occupy it for many more, but one sweet spring night, when they were dreaming of summer roamings, a band of hostile Indians came slipping behind the tree-trunks. A bright blaze shot up to the clear sky, and the bosom of Sleeping Water looked as if some one had drawn a b.l.o.o.d.y finger across it. Following this were shrieks and savage yells, and afterward a profound silence. The Indians left, and the shuddering trees grew closer together to hide the traces of the savage invaders--no, the marks of devastation," she said, stopping suddenly and correcting herself, for she had a good memory, and at times was apt to repeat verbatim the words of some of her favorite historians or story-tellers.
"The green running vines, also," she continued, "made haste to spread over the blackened ground, and the leaves fell quietly over the dead bodies and warmly covered them. Years went by, the leaf-mould had gathered thick over the graves of the Indians, and then, on a memorable day, the feast of Sainte-Anne"s, the French discovered the lovely, silent Sleeping Water, the gem of the forest, and erected a fort on its banks. The royal flag floated over the trees, a small s.p.a.ce of ground was cleared for the planting of corn, and a garden was laid out, where seeds from old France grew and flourished, for no disturbing gales from the Bay ever reached this sanctuary of the wildwood.
"All went merrily as a marriage bell until one winter night, when the bosom of the lake was frosted with ice, and the snow-laden branches of the trees hung heavily earthward. Then, in the hush before morning, a small detachment of men on snowshoes, arrayed in a foreign uniform, and carrying hatchets in their hands--"
"More Injuns!" gasped Mirabelle Marie, clapping her hand to her mouth in lively distress at Bidiane"s tragic manner.
"No, no! I didn"t say tomahawks," said Bidiane, who started nervously at the interruption; "the hatchets weren"t for killing,--they were to cut the branches. These soldiers crept stealthily and painfully through the underbrush, where broken limbs and p.r.i.c.kly shrubs stretched out detaining arms to hold them back; but they would not be held, for the l.u.s.t of murder was in their hearts. When they reached the broad and open lake--"
"You jist said it was frozen," interrupted the irrepressible Mirabelle Marie.
"I beg your pardon,--the ice-sealed sheet of water,--the soldiers threw away their hatchets and unslung their guns, and again a shout of horror went up to the clear vault of heaven. White men slew white men, for the invaders were not Indians, but English soldiers, and there were streaks of crimson on the snow where the French soldiers laid themselves down to die.
"There seemed to be a curse on the lake, and it was deserted for many years, until a band of sorrowing Acadien exiles was forced to take refuge in the half-ruined fort. They summered and wintered there, until they all died of a strange sickness and were buried by one man who, only, survived. He vowed that the lake was haunted, and would never be an abode for human beings; so he came to the sh.o.r.e and built himself a log cabin, that he occupied in fear and trembling until at last the time came when the French were no longer persecuted."
"Agapit LeNoir also says that the lake is haunted," exclaimed Claudine, in excited French. "He hates the little river that comes stealing from it. He likes the Bay, the open Bay. There is no one here that loves the river but Rose a Charlitte."
"But dere is gold dere,--heaps," said the visitor, in English, and her eyes glistened.
"Only foolish people say that," remarked Claudine, decidedly, "and even if there should be gold there, it would be cursed."
"You not think that," said Nannichette, shrinking back.
"Oh, how stupid all this is!" said Bidiane. "Up the Bay I used to hear this talk of gold. You remember, my aunt?"
Mirabelle Marie"s shoulders shook with amus.e.m.e.nt. "_Mon jheu_, yes, on the stony Dead Man"s Point, where there ain"t enough earth to _frica.s.ser les cailloux_" (frica.s.see the pebbles); "it"s all dug up like graveyards. Come on, Nannichette, tell us ag"in of yer fantome."
Nannichette became suddenly shy, and Mirabelle Marie took it upon herself to be spokeswoman. "She was rockin" her baby, when she heard a divil of a noise. The ceiling gapped at her, jist like you open yer mouth, and a fantome voice says--"
""Dere is gole in Sleepin" Water Lake,"" interrupted Nannichette, hastily. ""Only women shall dig,--men cannot fine.""
"An" Nannichette was squshed,--she fell ag"in the floor with her baby."
"And then she ran about to see if she could find some women foolish enough to believe this," said Bidiane, with fine youthful disdain.
A slow color crept into Nannichette"s brown cheek. "Dere is gole dere,"
she said, obstinately. "De speerit tell me where to look."
"That was Satan who spoke to you, Nannichette," said Claudine, seriously; "or maybe you had had a little rum. Come now, hadn"t you?"
Nannichette scowled, while Mirabelle Marie murmured, with reverent admiration, "I dessay the divil knows where there is lots of gold."
"It drives me frantic to hear you discuss this subject," said Bidiane, suddenly springing to her feet. "Oh, if you knew how ignorant it sounds, how way back in the olden times! What would the people in Paris say if they could hear you? Oh, please, let us talk of something else; let us mention art."
"What"s dat?" asked Nannichette, p.r.i.c.king up her ears.
"It is all about music, and writing poetry, and making lovely pictures, and all kinds of elegant things,--it elevates your mind and soul. Don"t talk about hateful things. What do you want to live back in the woods for? Why don"t you come out to the sh.o.r.e?"
"Dat"s why I wan" de gole," said Nannichette, triumphantly. "Of"en I use to hunt for some of Cap"en Kidd"s pots."
"Good gracious!" said Bidiane, with an impatient gesture, "how much money do you suppose that man had? They are searching for his treasure all along the coast. I don"t believe he ever had a bit. He was a wicked old pirate,--I wouldn"t spend his money if I found it--"
Mirabelle Marie and Nannichette surveyed each other"s faces with cunning, glittering eyes. There was a secret understanding between them; no speech was necessary, and they contemplated Bidiane as two benevolent wild beasts might survey an innocent and highly cultured lamb who attempted to reason with them.
Bidiane dimly felt her powerlessness, and, accompanied by Claudine, went back to her raking, and left the two sitting on the hay.
While the girl was undressing that night, Claudine tapped at her door.
"It is all arranged, Bidiane. They are going to dig."
Bidiane impatiently shook her hanging ma.s.s of hair, and stamped her foot on the floor. "They shall not."
"Nannichette did not go away," continued Claudine. "She hung about the stable, and Mirabelle Marie took her up some food. I was feeding the pig, and I overheard whispering. They are to get some women together, and Nannichette will lead them to the place the spirit told her of."
"Oh, the simpleton! She shall not come here again, and my aunt shall not accompany her--but where do they wish to go?"
"To the Sleeping Water Lake."
"Claudine, you know there is no gold there. The Indians had none, the French had none,--where would the poor exiles get it?"
"All this is reasonable, but there are people who are foolish,--always foolish. I tell you, this seeking for gold is like a fever. One catches it from another. I had an uncle who thought there was a treasure hid on his farm; he dug it all over, then he went crazy."
Bidiane"s head, that, in the light of her lamp, had turned to a dull red-gold, sank on her breast. "I have it," she said at last, flinging it up, and choking with irrepressible laughter. "Let them go,--we will play them a trick. Nothing else will cure my aunt. Listen,--" and she laid a hand on the shoulder of the young woman confronting her, and earnestly unfolded a primitive plan.
Claudine at once fell in with it. She had never yet disapproved of a suggestion of Bidiane, and after a time she went chuckling to bed.
CHAPTER VII.
GHOSTS BY SLEEPING WATER.
"Which apparition, it seems, was you."