The Cursed Patois | Page 5

one. And that bear went into
the woods and howled for hours. I took all the venison I could carry,
but left part of the carcasses. When we went after them in the morning,
the bear had eaten all up clean."
Bear-dens, Gougou was informed, might be found where there was a
windfall. The bears stuffed cracks between the fallen trees with moss,
and so made themselves a tight house in which to hibernate. If you
were obliged to have bear meat that season when the game was thin,
you could cut a hole into a den, stand by it with an axe, and lop off the
inquiring head stuck out to investigate disturbances. Bears had very

small stomachs, but whatever they ate went to fat. They walked much
on their hind feet, and browsed on nuts or mast when their hunting was
not successful, being able to thrive on little. Usually a father, a mother,
and a cub formed one household in one den.
Brown's mind ran on the subject of households; and he sometimes
talked to Françoise about his mother.
"My mother Gaelics like the Scotch," he said. Françoise could not
imagine what it was to Gaelic. People had not Gaelic-ed on the
Chaudière, where she was brought up until the children were obliged to
scatter from the narrow farm. But the priest had never warned her
against it, and since M'sieu' Brownee's mother was addicted to the
practice, it must be something excellent, perhaps even religious. She
secretly invoked St. Francis, her patron saint, to obtain for her that
mysterious power of Gaelic-ing of which M'sieu' Brownee spoke so
tenderly.
So the summer passed, and frost was already ripening to glory the
ranks on ranks of dense forest pressing to the lake borders. Brown and
Puttany rowed home through an early September evening, lifted their
boat to its cross-piece dock, and pulled the plug out of the bottom to let
it drain. There was no sound, even of the dogs, as they flung their spoil
ashore. It was the very instant of moon-rise. At first a copper rim was
answered by the faintest line in the water. Then the full reddish disk
stood upon a strong copper pillar, smooth and flawless in a rippleless
lake, and that became denuded of its capital as the ball rose over it into
the sky.
"Seems still," remarked Brown, and he ran up the path, shaking leaf
loam like dry tobacco dust from the roots of ferns he had brought to
Françoise. He knew at once that she and Gougou had left the camp. He
sat down on the dog-kennel with his hands on his knees, staring at the
dim earth. Puttany went from tent to cabin, calling his daily playmate,
unable to convince himself that some unusual thing had happened, and
he hoped that Brown would contradict him when he felt compelled to
announce his slow discovery.

"Dey vas gone!"
"Damn you, Puttany!" exploded his partner, "what did you bring her
here for? I didn't want to get into this! I wanted to steer clear of women!
You knew I was soft! You knew her black eyes, and the child that made
her seem like the Virgin, would get in their work on me!"
"No, I didn't," said Puttany, in phlegmatic consternation.
"What's the matter, Frank? Haven't we behaved white to this woman?
Have you done anything, you stupid old Dutchman," cried Brown,
collaring his partner with abrupt violence, "that would drive her out of
the camp without a word?"
"I svear, Prowny," the other gasped, as soon as he had breath for
swearing, "I haf been so polite to her as my own mudder."
The younger man sat down again, dropping lax hands across his knees.
A growl inside the box reminded him that Jim the blood-hound should
be brought to account for this disappearance.
"Come out here!" he commanded, and the lithe beast crept wagging and
apologizing to his side. "What kind of a way is this for you to keep a
camp--Jess sitting in the kitchen, and you in the box, and somebody
carrying off Françoise and the boy, and every rag that would show they
had ever been here--and not a sound out of your cowardly head till we
come home and catch you skulking? I've a notion to take a board and
beat you to death!"
Jim lay down with an abject and dismal whine.
"Where is she?"
Jim lifted his nose and sniffed hopefully, and his master rose up and
dragged him by the collar to the empty cabin. It was the first time
Brown had entered that little cell since its dedication to the woman for
whom it was built. He rubbed Jim's muzzle against the bed, and pointed
to nails in the logs where