14 



thrown to the earth and trampled under foot by the buffalo. 

 She commended herself to God and clung with all her strength 

 to the horse's mane. She could not calculate how long the 

 race lasted, she was only certain that it was horribly long. 

 When her husband by wheeling and cutting across the horse's 

 path succeeded in stopping his flight she was on the point of 

 succumbing to fear and fatigue. This was about three o'clock 

 in the afternoon. They pitched their tents on a rising piece 

 of ground near some trees and it was there, some hours after 

 the race that Madame Lajimoniere gave birth to her second 

 child, who they nicknamed Laprairie because he was born in 

 the middle of the prairie. 



The season was not very far advanced and the voyageurs 

 arrived in good time and without accident at the Fort of the 

 Prairies where they remained for the autumn and winter. 



In the spring Madame Lajimoniere had a strange adven- 

 ture at this same Fort with a squaw of the Blackfoot tribe. 

 One day she took a kettle to bring some water from the river 

 and her two children were left alone in the house. The dis- 

 tance from the Fort to the river was not very great, but the 

 banks were extremely high, and it took quite ten minutes to 

 go down and return again. 



Her youngest child was a pretty little baby with a fresh 

 complexion, blue eyes and fair hair, and he attracted a good 

 deal of attention from the squaws. 



A Blackfoot woman who often came into the Fort noticed 

 him and cast envious eyes on him. In spite of her affection 

 for her own progeny she thought him much more charming 

 than the little Blackfoot babies and resolved to steal him when 

 an opportunity offered. This morning she profited by Madame 

 Lajimoniere's absence to seize the baby and run away with 

 him. She put him on her back in a sort of hood formed by 

 the blanket which she wore and hastened out of the Fort to 

 join her people who were leaving the camp immediately. 

 Madame Lajimoniere saw the squaw hurrying away and carry- 

 ing a child, when she was climbing the bank with the kettle 

 of water, but she never supposed for an instant that it was her 

 child. 



At the gate of the Fort she met Mr. Bird, the Factor, 

 who asked her why she had left her children alone when the 

 Blackfoot were near. " There is one escaping with a child," 

 said he, " it might very well be yours that she has stolen. 

 Hurry ! And see if the children are safe." It only took an 



