Junia had come to
know of it through a neighbour and had sent jellies to the sick woman.
As she came forward now, Grandois, taken aback, said:
"Alors, they're all right, ma'm'selle, thank you. It was you sent the
jellies, eh?"
She nodded with a smile. "Yes, I sent them, Grandois. May I come and
see madame and the boy to-morrow?"
The incident had taken a favourable turn.
"It's about even-things between us, Grandois?" asked Carnac, and held
out his hand. "My father hit you, but you hit him harder by forgetting
about the smallpox and the rent, and also by drinking up the cash that
ought to have paid the rent. It doesn't matter now that the rent was
never paid, but it does that you recall the smallpox debt. Can't you say
a word for me, Grandois? You're a big man here among all the workers.
I'm a better Frenchman than the man I'm trying to turn out. Just a word
for a good cause.
"They're waiting for you, and your hand on it! Here's a place for you on
the roost. Come up."
The "roost" was an upturned tub lying face down on the ground, and in
the passion of the moment, the little man gripped Carnac's hand and stood
on the tub to great cheering; for if there was one thing the French-
Canadians love, it is sensation, and they were having it. They were
mostly Barouche's men, but they were emotional, and melodrama had stirred
their feelings.
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