a boarder was received by the family then in possession. The air was
chilly, and a fine rain was falling, the afterpiece of the
equinoctial; the wet storm-flag hung heavily down over the fort on the
height, and the waves came in sullenly. All was in sad accordance with
my feelings as I thought of the past and its dead, while the slow
tears of age moistened my eyes. But the next morning Mackinac awoke,
robed in autumn splendor; the sunshine poured down, the straits
sparkled back, the forest glowed in scarlet, the larches waved their
wild, green hands, the fair-weather flag floated over the little fort,
and all was as joyous as though no one had ever died; and indeed it is
in glorious days like these that we best realise immortality.

I wandered abroad through the gay forest to the Arch, the Lovers'
Leap, and old Fort Holmes, whose British walls had been battered down,
for pastime, so that only a caved-in British cellar remained to mark
the spot. Returning to the Agency, I learned that Father Piret had
called to see me.

'I am sorry that I missed him,' I said; 'he is a remarkable old man.'

The circle at the dinner-table glanced up with one accord. The little
minister with the surprised eyes looked at me more surprised than
ever; his large wife groaned audibly. The Baptist colporteur peppered
his potatoes until they and the plate were black; the Presbyterian
doctor, who was the champion of the Protestant party on the island,
wished to know if I was acquainted with the latest devices of the
Scarlet Woman in relation to the county school-fund.

'But my friends,' I replied, 'Father Piret and I both belong to the
past. We discuss not religion, but Mackinac; not the school-fund, but