A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 153 



affectionate to his foster-parent, deeply grateful for his 

 watchful solicitude, and no son, white or red, could 

 have shown more respect for his natural father than 

 Frank Talmunt did for Charley Nicholas. 



We need not wonder, then, that it did not require 

 many moons for the stories which the old man brought 

 back from the mouth of the Tobique, stories of the 

 beauty and goodness of Anita Sebattis, of the stern 

 resolve of her father and brothers that she should and 

 must be married to a white man, of the contemplated 

 migration to Nictau Lake, etc., to set Frank's heart in 

 a whirl of excitement. As the long winter months 

 rolled tediously by, he spent the days in trapping and 

 the nights in learning to read and write, because he 

 was told that Anita could read fairly well and even 

 write a letter, having been taught the rudiments by 

 Pere Lamorieux, the French Canadian priest. Many 

 were the "talks" Nicholas and he had about Anita 

 and how to woo her, how to get her away, if she was 

 willing, from her secluded home. It was finally de- 

 cided that, as soon as the ice moved out of the Penob- 

 scot, the foster-father should carry a letter written on 

 birch bark from Frank to Anita. He was also to tell 

 her of Frank's great love for her and that before the 

 frosts of early September she should watch for a signal 

 which he would display, at break of day, from the 

 table rock on the lake side of Bald Top Mountain. 

 Then, in the dusk of the evening, she was to take her 



