The
body-servant he sent out of his way with the ponies. Jean Lozier tramped
at his young seignior's heels, glad of some duty which would excuse him
to his conscience.
This was the peasant lad's first taste of Kaskaskia. He could hardly
believe he was there. The rapture of it at first shook him like a palsy.
He had risen while the whole peninsula was yet a network of dew, and the
Mississippi's sheet, reflecting the dawn, threw silver in his eyes. All
thoughts of his grandfather he put resolutely out of his mind; and such
thoughts troubled him little, indeed, while that sea of humanity dashed
around him. The crash of martial music stirred the man in him. And when
he saw the governor's carriage and the magnates of the Territory,
heading the long procession; the festooned galleries, on which sat
girls dressed in white, like angels, sending their slaves out with
baskets of flowers to strew in the way; when he saw floating tableaux of
men and scenes in the early history of the Territory,--heroes whose
exploits he knew by heart; and when he heard the shouting which seemed
to fill the rivers from bluff to bluff, he was willing to wade through
purgatory to pay for such a day.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70