Two of them sit on my knee
and two of them climb my back, and we talk it over. They will not let
you leave the house alive, mademoiselle. Father Olivier will still
celebrate the sacraments among us. Kaskaskia will have the consolations
of religion for this flood; but I may not have the consolation of
knowing my own wedding-day."
"The church is now half full of water."
"Must I first bail out the church?"
"I draw the line there, monsieur the colonel. You are a prevailing man.
You will doubtless wind me around your thumb as you do the Indians. But
when I am married, I will be married in church, and sign the register in
the old way. What, monsieur, do you think the water will never go down?"
"It will go down, yes, and the common fields will be the better for it.
But it is hard a man should have to watch a rivergauge to find out the
date of his own wedding."
"Yet one would rather do that than never have a wedding at all."
"I kiss your hand on that, mademoiselle."
"What are those little rings around the base of the trees, monsieur the
colonel?"
"They are marks which show that the water is already falling.
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