Sept. 29, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
489 
when I was leetle boy. . My fader, he say he no 
marry no more. He, my broder Etienne, and 
me, we live togeder. Ole man he go cook in 
lumber camp all winter. Me ’n Etienne tend 
traps, do chore, tak’ leetle fresh meat round 
camps, carry letter out for de boss, bring in tele¬ 
graph dispatch; do anything to earn dollar. 
“When I was ’leven year old, Louis Commeau 
come take up two hundred accre lot five mile to 
west of us. Louis was older man than my 
father. He had wife and one leetle girl, yoke 
of oxen, four, five cow, and money in bank. His 
house stand at head of Lac des Orrignals, big 
wild meadow right in front of door. Cut so 
much as twenty ton good hay, ‘nough to winter 
all stock he got. Bimeby lumber company want 
to dam lake, and flow 7 meadow. Louis go to 
boss and say, ‘No. If you flow meadow, you 
kill all my hay. What I going do feed all my 
stock in winter?’ Boss just laugh at him and 
say, ‘What we going do get our logs down unless’ 
we have dam on lake?’ Big crowd of men work 
on dam all fall. ’Long about time snow come, 
dam finished and they drop the gate. Then two 
big crews w r ork in woods all winter. Browse 
all ’long, stream pile solid full, ice on lake all 
covered, log everywhere. By middle of March 
two million ready to drive down when freshet 
come. 
“’Bout now Louis tell his wife it time to go 
to St. Hillaire and buy stuff for summer. No 
road from Lac des Orrignals to St. Hillaire after 
ice break up. He say, ‘I start Monday morning 
and look my traps. Monday night I come to 
Deiningues’ house and sleep there. Tuesday you 
come meet me.’ Monday night he come to our 
place ’long ’bout sundown. He had good luck 
trapping, two fox, two wildcat, t’ree, four.sable, 
and get ole man cacajou bin bodderin’ roun’ 
traps all fall. My fader he say. ‘Bully for you, 
Louis. Cacajou spoil my traps all same as yours. 
S’pose now you got him, leetle drap whiski 
blanc.’ 
“Louis and father take leetle drink, we boys 
get some too, then we turn in. Morning come, 
we have breakfast, and wait for hear Louis’ ox- 
bells coming down tote-road from Lac des Or¬ 
rignals. Seven, eight, nine come, and no bells. 
Louis he get oneasy. He say, ‘Demingues, I 
t’ink mebee ole woman fall sick, mebee oxen get 
lame. Anyway, I goin’ back, see why she no 
coming, p’haps meet her down to foot o’ lake.’ 
Father say he got no beezness that day, he come 
too. It mor’n two miles ’long tote-road to foot 
of lake. Just so soon as they come on river, 
father, he say, ‘Mon dieu, w’at freshet! Dam, 
he gone for sure.’ 
“Sure ’nough, dam blow some way ’nuther. 
Like ’nough eels work trough him. Water all 
run out of the flowage, ice all hollow underneath, 
and just where tote-road run off ’er lake, big hole 
in the ice, sled tracks running right to it, and 
just beside de hole, black ’n red tuque lyin’ on 
de ice. Louis, he cry out, ‘C’est le tuque de ma 
femme.’ Den dey get long pole, and feel down 
under de ice. Sure ’nough, pole fetch up ’gin 
sled body. Father run ’cross to lumber camp, 
and say Louis Commeau wife he drowned in flow- 
age at foot of lake. Boss come mighty quick. 
Near hun’red men come ’long mit him. All day 
dey work, opening dam, and wait while water 
run down. Den dey get grapple fast to hind 
end of sled and haul him up. Louis’ wife she 
caught her dress in sled chain, she drown. Louis 
put big grindstone on sled, for get him fix to 
St. Hillaire. Grindstone, he sink sled, oxen, 
whole beezness, same you drown one cat. I tell 
you, mighty big time roun’ dere. No funeral 
more bigger since first man buried in St. Hillaire. 
“After funeral, Louis go to boss and say, ‘What 
you goin’ do for me? You drown my woman, 
my baby, my oxen, you flow my meadow, you 
kill all my hay, you cut logs on my land.’ After 
long talk, boss say he give him two hundred an’ 
feefty dollar. Louis say, ‘Dat mean hunnerd an’ 
twenty for oxen, an’ hunnerd an’ t’irty for my 
wife an’ chile. To hell mit you. I take de law 
on you, an’ see if my wife not wort’ mor’n my 
working team.’ 
“Boss just laugh, an’ say for him to go to law 
an’ see what de law give him. I tell you, law 
mighty bad i’ing for a poor man. Fall after 
Louis lose his wife, he lose all his money, his 
stock what he have left, and his land, and he 
come to our house an’ all he have in dis world 
was one ol’ gun an’ his traps. Lawyer men tak’ 
all rest him stuff. His house take fire an' burn; 
some say he’s sot it. Anyway, it burn right up, 
an’ fire run from it an’ burn camp on La Rac- 
quette, an’ all stores in camp. I see camp at La 
Racquette, after him burnt. Grub for six weeks 
drive, more axes, peevies, pike-poles, an’ all such 
truck as you could count, all burn up. 
“Little time after, Louis meet my father. My 
father say, ‘You got square with lumber company 
an’ no mistake, Louis. Take care what you do. 
P’haps you go too far next time.’ 
“Louis he grin all same you see wildcat grin 
in trap. ‘You wait while snow come, Demingues. 
You see what happen round Lac des Orrignals, 
and La Racquette. How many time you see wolf 
track last winter? How offen you hear him 
howl ? Mebbe t’ree, four time. Dis winter you 
hear him every night. You see him track every 
time you go look your traps. Mathis Desjardin 
wish he never put dam on lake ’fore w’inter over. 
You good fren’ to me, Demingues, you len' me 
ten dollars pay for mass for Julie an’ Celine. 
No wolf hurt you so long you no hurt him. I 
say au revoir now. I go up nort’, you see me 
'gain next fall just ’fore first snow come.’ 
“Father t’ink Louis gone crazy. He tell Mathis 
Desjardin to keep lookout for him. Mathis laugh 
an’ say he not scared. ’Long in summer Louis 
send father ten dollar he borrow off him, an’ 
forty dollar more. He ask him to buy leetle 
log shanty, just a mile out of St. TP ill ai re, where 
tote-road goes into Lac des Orrignals. He t’ink 
he keep leetle whiski blanc for men in camps. 
Fall come round, father go to woods an’ set 
up deadfall for mink an’ sable, same he always 
done. Set snares an’ steel traps for fox an’ 
wildcat, an’ cruise ’round an’ see what slides 
THE RUFFED GROUSE AT HOME—A BIT OF ARTISTIC TAXIDERMY. 
Photo by “Em.” 
