"Oui, Mademoiselle, avec le plus grand plaisir." Tripping lightly
ahead she announced the two strangers, and then returned, going to
the bars where the cows were lowing, waiting to be milked. The
persistent stranger had not, by any means, made up his mind to desist
in his wooing.

"The colt shies," he murmured, "when she first sees the halter.
Presently, she becomes tractable enough." Then, while he sat waiting
for the evening meal, blithely through the hush of the exquisite
evening came the voice of the girl. She was singing from _La Claire
Fontaine_.

"A la claire fontaine
Je m'allais promener,
J'ai trouve l'eau si belle
Que je me suis baigne"

Her song ended with her work, and as she passed the strangers with
her two flowing pails of yellow milk, Riel whispered softly, as he
touched her sweet little hand:

"Ah, ma petite amie!"

The same flash came in her eyes, the same proud blood appeared red
through the dusk of her cheek, but she restrained herself. He was a
guest under her father's roof, and she would suffer the offence to
pass. The persistent gallant was more crest-fallen by this last
silent rebuke than by the first with its angry words. The first, in
his vanity, he had deemed an outburst of petulance, instead of an