child. I will pray to the Prince of Peace for you as long as I live, and I will never cease to beg the Holy Virgin to intercede for you and lead you to the Holy Church." 

 He turned and went away; but when he was no farther than the gate, Alice called out: 

 "O Father Beret, I forgot to show you something!" 

 She ran forth to him and added in a low tone: 

 "You know that Madame Roussillon has hidden all the novels from me." 

 She was fumbling to get something out of the loose front of her dress. 

 "Well, just take a glance at this, will you?" and she showed him a little leather bound volume, much cracked along the hinges of the back. 

 It was Manon Lescaut, that dreadful romance by the famous Abbe Prevost. 

 Pere Beret frowned and went his way shaking his head; but before he reached his little hut near the church he was laughing in spite of himself. 

 "She's not so bad, not so bad," he thought aloud, "it's only her young, independent spirit taking the bit for a wild run. In her sweet soul she is as good as she is pure." 

 

 

 CHAPTER II 

 A LETTER FROM AFAR 

 Although Father Beret was for many years a missionary on the Wabash, most of the time at Vincennes, the fact that no mention of him can be found in the records is not stranger than many other things connected with the old town's history. He was, like nearly all the men of his calling in that day, a self-effacing and modest hero, apparently quite unaware that he deserved attention. He and Father Gibault, whose name is so beautifully and nobly connected with the stirring achievements of Colonel George Rogers Clark, were close friends and often companions. Probably Father Gibault himself, whose fame will never fade, would have been to-day as obscure as Father Beret, but for the opportunity 

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