Crude as her sense of life's larger significance was,
and meager as had been her experience in the things which count
for most in the sum of a young girl's existence under fair
circumstances, she grasped intuitively the gist of it all.
The dance did not come off; it had to be postponed indefinitely on
account of a grave change in the political relations of the little
post. A day or two before the time set for that function a rumor
ran through the town that something of importance was about to
happen. Father Gibault, at the head of a small party, had arrived
from Kaskaskia, far away on the Mississippi, with the news that
France and the American Colonies had made common cause against the
English in the great war of which the people of Vincennes neither
knew the cause nor cared a straw about the outcome.
It was Oncle Jazon who came to the Roussillon place to tell M.
Roussillon that he was wanted at the river house. Alice met him at
the door.
"Come in, Oncle Jazon," she cheerily said, "you are getting to be
a stranger at our house lately. Come in; what news do you bring?
Take off your cap and rest your hair, Oncle Jazon."
The scalpless old fighter chuckled raucously and bowed to the best
of his ability. He not only took off his queer cap, but looked
into it with a startled gaze, as if he expected something
infinitely dangerous to jump out and seize his nose.
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