Page:Gilbert Parker--The Lane that had No Turning.djvu/145

Rh Françoise,’ and then just before I go I make them laugh, for I stand by the cradle and I sing to that Marie:

"So; and another year it go along, and Bargon he know that if there come bad crop it is good-bye-my lover with himselves. He owe two hunder’ and fifty dollar. It is the spring at Easter, and I go up to him and Norinne, for there is no Mass, and Pontiac is too far away off. We stan’ at the door and look out, and all the prairie is green, and the sun stan’ up high like a light on a pole, and the birds fly by ver’ busy looking for the summer and the prairie-flower.

"‘Bargon,’ I say—and I give him a horn of old rye—‘here’s to le bon Dieu!’

"‘Le bon Dieu, and a good harvest!’ he say.

"I hear some one give a long breath behin’, and I look round; but, no, it is Norinne with a smile—for she never grumble—bagosh! What purty eyes she have in her head! She have that Marie in her arms, and I say to Bargon it is like the Madonna in the Notre Dame at Montreal. He nod his head. ‘C’est le bon Dieu—it is the good God,’ he say.

"Before I go I take a piece of palm—it come from the Notre Dame; it is all bless by the Pope—and I nail it to the door of the house. ‘For luck,’ I say. Then I laugh, and I speak out to the prairie: ‘Come along, good summer; come along, good crop; come two hun-