A Little Girl in Old Detroit | Page 7

seen. Ladies rejoiced in new importations, and in winter went
decked in costly furs. Even the French damsels relaxed their plain attire

and made pictures with their bright kerchiefs tied coquettishly over
curling hair, and they often smiled back at the garrison soldiers or the
troops on parade. The military gardens were improved and became
places of resort on pleasant afternoons, and the two hundred houses
inside the pickets increased a little, encroaching more and more on the
narrow streets. The officers' houses were a little grander; some of the
traders indulged in more show and their wives put on greater airs and
finer gowns and gave parties. The Campeau house was venerable even
then, built as it was on the site of Cadillac's headquarters and
abounding in many strange legends, and there were rude pictures of the
Canoe with Madame Cadillac, who had made the rough voyage with
her ladies and come to a savage wilderness out of love for her husband;
and the old, long, low Cass house that had sheltered so many in the
Pontiac war, and the Governor's house on St. Anne's street, quite grand
with its two stories and peaked roof, with the English colors always
flying.
Many of the houses were plastered over the rough hewn cedar lath,
others were just of the smaller size trees split in two and the interstices
filled in. Many were lined with birch bark, with borders of beautiful ash
and silver birch. Chimneys were used now, great wide spaces at one
end filled in with seats. In winter furs were hung about and often
dropped over the windows at night, which were always closed with
tight board shutters as soon as dusk set in, which gave the streets a
gloomy aspect and in nowise assisted a prowling enemy. A great solid
oaken door, divided in the middle with locks and bars that bristled with
resistance, was at the front.
But inside they were comfortable and full of cheer. Wooden benches
and chairs, some of the former with an arm and a cushion of spruce
twigs covered with a bear or wolf skin, though in the finer houses there
were rush bottoms and curiously stained splints with much ornamental
Indian work. A dresser in the living room displayed not only Queen's
ware, but such silver and pewter as the early colonists possessed, and
there were pictures curiously framed, ornaments of wampum and shells
and fine bead work. The family usually gathered here, and the large
table standing in the middle of the floor had a hospitable look

heightened by the savory smells which at that day seemed to offend no
one.
The farms all lay without and stretched down the river and westward.
The population outside had increased much faster, for there was room
to grow. There were little settlements of French, others of half-breeds,
and not a few Indian wigwams. The squaws loved to shelter themselves
under the wing of the Fort and the whites. Business of all kinds had
increased since the coming of the English.
But now there had occurred another overturn. Detroit had been an
important post during the Revolution, and though General Washington,
Jefferson, and Clark had planned expeditions for its attack, it was, at
the last, a bloodless capture, being included in the boundaries named in
the Quebec Act. But the British counted on recapture, and the Indians
were elated with false hopes until the splendid victories of General
Wayne in northern Illinois against both Indians and English. By his
eloquence and the announcement of the kindly intentions of the United
States, the Chippewa nation made gifts of large tracts of land and
relinquished all claims to Detroit and Mackinaw.
The States had now two rather disaffected peoples. Many of the
English prepared to return to Canada with the military companies. The
French had grown accustomed to the rule and still believed in kings and
state and various titles. But the majority of the poor scarcely cared, and
would have grumbled at any rule.
For weeks Detroit was in a ferment with the moving out. There were
sorrowful farewells. Many a damsel missed the lover to whom she had
pinned her faith, many an irregular marriage was abruptly terminated.
The good Recollet fathers had tried to impress the sacredness of family
ties upon their flock, but since the coming of the English, the liberty
allowed every one, and the Protestant form of worship, there had grown
a certain laxness even in the town.
"It is going to be a great day!" declared Jeanne, as she sprang out of her
little pallet. There were two beds in the room, a great, high-post carved
bedstead of the Bellestre grandeur, and the cot Jacques Pallent, the

carpenter, had made, which was four sawed posts, with a frame nailed
to