Early Candlelight

VII

VII ASPER PAGE paddled away from his island, kneeling Indian fashion in one end of a birch bark canoe. His favorite hunting dog was at the other end, and as the master drove the craft forward with long-spaced strokes, the dog’s head nodded in a lazy rhythm. The air was filled with the quivering motes of Indian summer. These blended the yellow of beeches, the rusty brown of oaks, the coppery gold and rose of maples along the bluffs into shimmering veils which dropped on either side of the shimmering bright blue river. What a day, thought Jasper Page, bending with his paddle strokes, his bare head shining in the sun, his broad back playing freely under a buckskin shirt, what a day to have a fine Chippewa canoe alone upon the Mississippi! Six boatmen with plumed hats were well enough when one had visitors of rank. But there were times when a man liked to be off by himself. And that, he told himself as the canoe slipped forward, was the reason he was going to the DuGays’, when he might far more easily have asked Hypolite to bring Narcisse to the island. There were other reasons, too; plenty of them. He wanted an excuse to get away from the island, from the fever of activity that his preparations for a buffalo J VII J ASPER PAGE paddled away from his island, kneel~ ing Indian fashion in one end of a birch bark canoe. His favorite hunting dog was at the other end, and as the master drove the craft forward with long,spaced strokes, the dog's head nodded in a lazy rhythm. The air was filled with the quivering motes of Indian summer. These blended the yellow of beeches, the rusty brown of oaks, the coppery gold and rose of maples along the bluffs into shimmering veils which dropped on either side of the shimmering bright blue river. What a day, thought Jasper Page, bending with his paddle strokes, his bare head shining in the sun, his broad back playing freely under a buckskin shirt, what a day to have a fine Chippewa canoe alone upon the Mississippi! Six boatmen with plumed hats were well enough when one had visitors of rank. But there were times when a man liked to be off by himself. And that, he told himself as the canoe slipped forward, was the reason he was going to the DuGays', when he might far more easily have asked Hypolite to bring Narcisse to the island. There were other reasons, too; plenty of them. He wanted an excuse to get away from the island, from the fever of activity that his preparations for a buffalo 203 VII J ASPER PAGE paddled away from his island, kneel~ ing Indian fashion in one end of a birch bark canoe. His favorite hunting dog was at the other end, and as the master drove the craft forward with long,spaced strokes, the dog's head nodded in a lazy rhythm. The air was filled with the quivering motes of Indian summer. These blended the yellow of beeches, the rusty brown of oaks, the coppery gold and rose of maples along the bluffs into shimmering veils which dropped on either side of the shimmering bright blue river. What a day, thought Jasper Page, bending with his paddle strokes, his bare head shining in the sun, his broad back playing freely under a buckskin shirt, what a day to have a fine Chippewa canoe alone upon the MississippiI Six boatmen with plumed hats were well enough when one had visitors of rank. But there were times when a man liked to be off by himself. And that, he told himself as the canoe slipped forward, was the reason he was going to the DuGays', when he might far more easily have asked Hypolite to bring Narcisse to the island. There were other reasons, too; plenty of them. He wanted an excuse to get away from the island, from the fever of activity that his preparations for a buffalo 204 EARLY CANDLELIGHT hunt had started there. With a whole Indian village coming to partake of his feast and to receive his invitation , the activity was necessary, he knew. But that did not make the place more tranquil. Moreover, he admitted it freely, he was interested in the DuGays. He had often wondered how they were getting on. He hoped for their sake that there was no truth in...