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St. Valentine’s Day is much more important here than in the Old Country, Pierre decided as he put the finishing touches on special pastries he and Jean-Marie had made for the day’s customers. Many of les Americains placed their orders as long as a week ago. Even in the middle of a war, some of them still have enough to spend on a few treats for their sweethearts and children. After two years in this country, I can still be surprised by these people. Since he had a few minutes before beginning a batch of bread, Pierre stepped out the door to get some air and to do the people-watching he so enjoyed. On good days, he caught drifts of conversations when people didn’t think he could hear, or couldn’t understand them. This watching and listening had helped him to know this place and the people better. He felt wiser in Terrebonne’s ways since he first came over two years ago, not only from his direct contact with so many different people, but also from this indirect hearing what they were thinking and caring about. Pierre saw the grande dame of a Bayou Black plantation bustling along the opposite side of the street, ignoring the children and shopkeepers who hastened to remove themselves from her path. He thought she wielded her parasol as a weapon, and her children followed her like the wake of a boat in full sail. That femme didn’t surprise me, though. When most of her slaves ran away as soon and as fast as they could last month, she was not sad and afraid, but furieuse. I heard her talk about “outrage that they would abandon her and her plantation.” Sapristi! What did she think they would do? I heard the stories about how that family treated their Negroes, much different from some of the other good families around here. Pierre had heard many conversations among planters’ wives, most of them Americains. Their husbands and sons had joined different regiments of the Confederacy in the early days of la Louisiane joining the Confederate states. Mr. McCollam’s oldest son Andrew was serving in the St. Mary’s Cannoniers, so Ellendale was minus one child at their table these days. Two of the Shaffer boys, Thomas J. and John J., were both in Confederate ranks. Duncan Minor was off fighting in Virginia, and his brother Stephen was in a prison camp in Kentucky. CHAPTER 9 February 14, 1862: The Baker’s Plans 93 Chapter 9 Magnoliac.1850s,TerrebonneParish Henry Ellender of lower Bayou Terrebonne was in service to the Confederacy. The five sons of Concord Plantation were all away at war. Elisha, Abraham, young Holden, Thomas, and William had already been in Virginia and Pennsylvania battles. Mr. Wright, Sr. had received word not long ago that William and Thomas were in Yankee prison camps. Many other planters had gone away, leaving their families behind. But when I hear these mamans talking, they speak of their worries for their husbands and sons more than their own discomfort, not like that woman across the street. She thinks she has a right to be treated better. Pierre was reminded of the few members of the French aristocracy he had encountered during his stay in Bordeaux. It’s the same attitude, except for one it’s by birth, and for the other it’s by money that they make their claims. He had stayed outside the shop long enough, and went back inside to begin baking baguettes. While his hands automatically shaped the loaves, he had a lot of time to think. Poor Monsieur Blanchard. He thought he had made such a good deal when he sold all those acres bordering one Americain’s plantation for fifty dollars. He was so busy rejoicing about having so much money at one time, nobody had the heart to tell him the land was worth at least three hundred dollars. After just a short time in the parish, I saw that it was an old pattern here. Small Acadien and other farms gobbled up by large landowners, and les Acadiens moving farther and farther from the choicest ground down into the bayou areas where only ridges accommodate them. But the majority of these people still seemed content, Pierre decided. Most of them have no grand ambitions, and want only to have enough food on their tables and to be left to live their lives with no...

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