BAYOU FOLK
By
KATE CHOPIN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
Riverside press, Cambridge
1894
CONTENTS.
A NO-ACCOUNT CREOLE
IN AND OUT OF OLD NATCHITOCHES
IN SABINE
A VERY FINE FIDDLE
BEYOND THE BAYOU
OLD AUNT PEGGY
THE RETURN OF ALCIBIADE
A RUDE AWAKENING
THE BÊNITOUS' SLAVE
DÉSIRÉE'S BABY
A TURKEY HUNT
MADAME CÉLESTIN'S DIVORCE
LOVE ON THE BON-DIEU
LOKA
BOULÔT AND BOULOTTE
FOR MARSE CHOUCHOUTE
A VISIT TO AVOYELLES
A WIZARD FROM GETTYSBURG
MA'AME PÉLAGIE
AT 'CADIAN WALL
LA BELLE ZORAÏDE
A GENTLEMAN OF BAYOU TÊCHE
A LADY OF BAYOU ST. JOHN
BAYOU FOLK.
A NO-ACCOUNT CREOLE
I.
One agreeable afternoon in late autumn two young men stood together onCanal Street, closing a conversation that had evidently begun withinthe club-house which they had just quitted.
"There's big money in it, Offdean," said the elder of the two. "I wouldn't have you touch it if there was n't. Why, they tell me Patchly 'spulled a hundred thousand out of the concern a'ready."
"That may be," replied Offdean, who had been politely attentive to thewords addressed to him, but whose face bore a look indicating that hewas closed to conviction. He leaned back upon the clumsy stick whichhe carried, and continued: "It's all true, I dare say, Fitch; but adecision of that sort would mean more to me than you'd believe if Iwere to tell you. The beggarly twenty-five thousand's all I have, andI want to sleep with it under my pillow a couple of months at leastbefore I drop it into a slot."
"You 'll drop it into Harding & Offdean's mill to grind out the pitifultwo and a half per cent commission racket; that 's what you 'll do inthe end, old fellow—see if you don't."
"Perhaps I shall; but it's more than likely I shan't. We 'll talkabout it when I get back. You know I'm off to north Louisiana in themorning"—
"No! What the deuce"—
"Oh, business of the firm."
"Write me from Shreveport, then; or wherever it is."
"Not so far as that. But don't expect to hear from me till you see me.I can't say when that will be."
Then they shook hands and part