The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cursed Patois, by Mary Hartwell Catherwood

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org


Title: The Cursed Patois
       From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899

Author: Mary Hartwell Catherwood

Release Date: October 30, 2007 [EBook #23247]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CURSED PATOIS ***




Produced by David Widger






THE CURSED PATOIS

From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899

By Mary Hartwell Catherwood


As his boat shot to the camp dock of beach stones, the camper thought he
heard a child's voice behind the screen of brush. He leaped out and drew
the boat to its landing upon a cross-piece held by two uprights in the
water, and ascended the steep path worn in leaf mould.

There was not only a child, there was a woman also in the camp. And
Frank Puttany, his German feet planted outward in a line, his smiling
dark face unctuous with hospitality towards creatures whom he had
evidently introduced, in foolish helplessness gave his partner the usual
greeting:

"Veil, Prowny."

"Hello, Puttany. Visitors?"

Brown pulled off his cap to the woman. She was pretty, with eyes like
a deer's, with white teeth showing between her parted scarlet lips, and
much curling hair pinned up and blowing over her ears. She had the rich
tint of a quarter-breed, lightened in her case by a constant suffusion
which gave her steady color. She was dressed in a mixture of patches,
but all were fitted to her perfect shape with a Parisian elegance sensed
even by-backwoodsmen. Pressed against her knee stood the dirtiest and
chubbiest four-year-old child on the borders of Brevoort Lake--perhaps
the dirtiest on the north shore of Michigan. The Indian mixed with his
French had been improved on by the sun until he was of a brick redness
and hardness of flesh; a rosy-raeated thing, like a good muskalonge.
Brown suddenly remembered the pair. They were Joe La France's wife and
child. Joe La France was dead. Puttany had recently told him that Joe
La France left a widow and a baby without shelter, and without relations
nearer than Canada.

After greeting Brown the guest resumed her seat on one of the
camp-chairs, a box worn smooth by much use, having a slit cut in the top
through which the hand could be thrust to lift it.

The camp, in a small clearing, consisted of two tents, both of the
wedge-shaped kind. The sleeping-tent was nearly filled by the bed
it contained; and this, lifted a few inches above the ground on pole
supports, was of browse or brush and straw, covered with blankets. A
square canopy of mosquito-netting protected it. The cooking-tent had a
foundation of logs and a canvas top. The floor was of pure white sand.
Boxes like lockers were stored under the eaves to hold food, and in one
corner a cylindrical camp-stove with an oven thrust its pipe through a
tinned hole in the roof. Plenty of iron skillets, kettles, and pans hung
above the lockers on pegs in the logs; and the camp dinner service of
white ware, black-handled knives and forks, and metal spoons, neatly
washed, stood on a table. Jess, the Scotch collie, who was always left
to guard the tents in their owners' absence, sat at her usual post
within the door; and she and Brown exchanged repressed growls at the
strangers. Jess, being freed from her chain, trotted at his heels when
he went back to the beach to clean fish for supper. She sat and watched
his deft and work-hardened hands as he dipped and washed and drew and
scaled his spoil. He was a clean-skinned, blue-eyed Canadian Irishman,
well made and sinewy, bright and open of countenance. His blond hair
clung in almost flaxen tendrils to his warm forehead. No ill-nature was
visible about him, yet he turned like a man in fierce self-defence on
his partner, who followed Jess and stood also watching him.

"Puttany, you fool! what have you brought these cursed patois into camp
for?"

"Joe La France vas my old pardner," softly pleaded the German.

"Damn you, man, we can't start an orphan-asylum and widows' home! We'll
get a bad name at the hotels. The real good people won't have us for
guides."

"She told me in Allanville she had no place to stay. She did not know
what to do. At the old voman's, where Joe put her, they have need of her
bed. The old voman is too poor to keep her any more."

"I'd have done just what you did; that's what makes me so mad. How long
is she going to stay?"

"I don't know," sheepishly responded his partner.

"A Dutchman ought to have more sense than to load up with a lot of
cursed patois. Nothing but French and Indian! We'll have to put the
precious dears in the sleeping-tent, and bunk down ourselves with
blankets in the other. Did you air the blankets good this morning,
Frank?"

"They vos veil aired."

"You're a soft mark, Frank! One of us will have to marry Joe La France's
widow--that's what it will come to!" Brown slapped the water in violent
disgust, but Puttany blushed a dark and modest red.

Men of their class rarely have vision or any kind of foresight. They
live in the present and plan no farther than their horizon, being, like
children, overpowered by visible things. But the Irish Canadian had
lived many lives as lake sailor and lumberman, and he had a shrewd eye
and quick humor. It was he who had devised the conveniences of the camp,
and who delicately and skilfully prepared the meals so that the two
fared like epicures; while Puttany did the scullery-work, and was
superior only at deerstalking.

The perfume of coffee presently sifted abroad, and the table was brought
out and set under the evening sky. Lockers gave up their store of bread
and pastry made by the capable hands of the camp housekeeper. The woman,
their guest, sat watching him move from cook-tent to table, and Puttany
lounged on the dog-kennel, whittling a stick.

"Frank," said his partner, with sudden authority, "you take the kid down
to the water and scrub him."

"All over?" whispered Puttany, in confusion.

"No--just his hands and top. Supper is ready to put on."

The docile mother heard her child yelling and blubbering under generous
douches while nurse's duty was performed by one of her entertainers, and
she smiled in proof that her faith was grounded on their righteousness.
She was indeed a mere girl. Her short scarlet upper lip showed her teeth
with piquant innocence. As much a creature of the woods as a doe, her
lot had been that primitive struggle which knows nothing about the
amenities and proprieties of civilization. This Brown could clearly see,
and he addressed her with the same protecting patronage he would have
used with the child.

"What's your kid's name?"

"Grégoire, but he call himself Gougou. Me, I am Françoise La France."

"Yes, I know that..You have had a hard time since Joe died."

"I been anxion"--she clasped her hands and looked pleadingly at him--"I
been very anxion!"

"Well, you're all right now."

"You let me do de mend'? I can sew. I use' learn to sew when I have
t'ing to sew on."

"Jerusalem! look at them shirts on the line! We have more clothes to
sew on than any dude at the hotels. And if that isn't enough, I'll make
Puttany strip and stay in the brush while you do his clothes."

Françoise widened her smile.

"I've been thinking we'll have to build you a house right over there."
Her entertainer indicated the shore behind her.

"Oppos'?" exclaimed Françoise, turning with pleased interest. Even in
her husband's lifetime little thought had ever been taken for her.

"Yes, directly opposite. We can fix it up snug like our winter camp at
the other end of the lake."

"Have you two camp?"

"Yes--a winter camp and a summer camp. But we have stayed comfortably
here in the cook-tent until the thermometer went fourteen degrees below
zero. We'll sleep in it till we get your house done, and you can take
the tent. If there are no parties wanting guides, we might as well begin
it in the morning."

"But," faltered Françoise, "afterw'iles when de ice is t'ick, and you go
to de hudder camp--"

"Oh, we'll take care of you," he promised. "You and Gougou will go with
us. We couldn't leave you on this side."

"In de dark nights," shuddered Françoise.

"You needn't be afraid, any time. When we are off during the day we
always leave Jess and Jim to guard the camp. Jess is a Scotch collie and
Jim is a blood-hound. He's there in the kennel. Neither man nor varmint
would have any chance with them."

"I been use' to live alone when my husban' is away, M'sieu' Brownee. I
not 'fraid like you t'ink. But if Gougou be cold and hongry."

"Now that's enough," said Brown, with gentle severity. "Gougou will
never be cold and hungry again while there's a stick of wood to be cut
on the shores of this lake, or any game to bag, or a 'lunge to spear
through the ice. We get about two days' lumbering a week down by
St. Ignace. No use to work more than two days a week," he explained,
jocosely. "That gives us enough to live on; and everybody around here
owes us from fifty to a hundred dollars back pay for work, anyhow. I've
bought this ground, twenty acres of it, and another year I'm going to
turn it into a garden."

"Oh, a garden, M'sieu' Brownee! Me, I love some garden! I plant honion
once, salade also."

"But I want to get my fences built before I put in improvements. You
know what the silver rule is, don't you?"

"No, m'sieu'," answered Françoise, vaguely. She knew little of any rule.

"The silver rule is different from the golden rule. It's 'Do your
neighbors, or your neighbors will do you.' If I don't protect myself,
all the loose cattle around Brevoort will graze over me. Every fellow
for himself. We can't keep the golden rule. We'd never get rich if we
did."

"You are rich mans?" interrogated Françoise, focussing her curiosity on
that invisible power of wealth.

"Millionaires," brazenly claimed the young man, as he put an
earthen-ware pitcher on the table. "Set there, you thousand-dollar dish!
We don't have a yacht on the lake because we prefer small boats, and
we go out as guides to have fun with the greenhorns. The cooking at the
hotels is good enough for common hunters and fishermen who come here
from the cities to spend their money, but it isn't good enough for me.
You've come to the right place, you may make your mind easy on that."

Françoise smiled because he told her to make her mind easy, not because
she understood the irony of his poverty. To have secure shelter, and
such a table as he spread, and the prowess to achieve continual abundant
sustenance from the world, made wealth in her eyes. She was as happy as
Gougou when this strange family, gathered from three or four nations,
sat down to their first meal.

The sun went low like a scarlet eggy probing the mother-of-pearl lake
with a long red line of shadow, until it wasted into grayness and so
disappeared. Then home-returning sails became spiritualized, and moved
in mist as in a dream--foggy lake and sky, as one body, seeming to push
in upon the land.

Françoise slept the sleep of a healthy woman, with her child on her arm,
until at dawn the closed flap of the tent yielded to a bounding shape.
She opened her startled eyes to see Jim the blood-hound at the foot of
the bed, jerking the mosquito-netting. He growled at the interlopers,
not being able in his canine mind to reconcile their presence with his
customary duty of waking his masters in that tent. A call and a whistle
at the other side of the camp drew him away doubting. But in a day both
he and Jess had adopted the new members of the family and walked at
Gougou's heels.

Gougou existed in wonderland. He regarded the men as great and amiable
powers, who could do what they pleased with the elements and with the
creatures of the earth. They had a fawn, which had followed Brown home
along the beach, feeding on leaves from his hand. They had built it a
sylvan home of cedar boughs behind the camp, from which it wandered
at will. And though at first shy of Gougou, the pretty thing was soon
induced to stand upon its hind feet and dance for bits of cake. His
Indian blood vearned towards the fawn; but Me-thuselah, the mighty
turtle, was more exciting. Methuselah lived a prisoner in one side of
the bait-tank, from which he was lifted by a rope around his tail. He
was so enormous that it required both Brown and Puttany to carry him
up the bank, and as he hung from the pole the sudden projection of his
snapping head was a danger. When he fastened his teeth into a stick, the
stick was hopelessly his as long as he chose to keep it. He was like
an elephant cased in mottled shell, and the serrated ridge on his tail
resembled a row of huge brown teeth. Methuselah was a many-wrinkled
turtle. When he contracted, imbedding head in shoulders and legs in
body, revealing all his claws and showing wicked little eyes near the
point of his nose, his helpless rage stirred all the Indian; he was the
most deliciously devilish thing that Gougou had ever seen.

Then there was the joy of wintergreen, which both men brought to the
child, and he learned to forage for it himself. The fleshy dark green
leaves and red berries clustered thickly in the woods. He and his
mother went in the boat when the day was to be given to bass or pickerel
fishing, and he learned great lessons of water-lore from the two men.
If they trusted a troll line to his baby hands, he was in a state of
beatitude. His object in life was to possess a bear cub, and many
a porcupine creeping along the beach he mistook for that desirable
property, until taught to distinguish quills from fur. Gougou heard, and
he believed, that all porcupines were old lumbermen, who never died, but
simply contracted to that shape. He furtively stoned them when he could,
reflecting that they were tough, and delighting to see the quills fly.

Françoise would sit in the camp like a picture of still life, glowing
and silent at her appointed labor. She sewed for all of them, looking
womanly and unhurried, with a pink-veined moccasin-flower in her hair;
while Brown, cooking and baking, rushed from tent to wood-pile, his
sleeves turned back from his white, muscular arms. He lived more
intensely than any other member of the sylvan household. His blue eyes
shone, and his face was vivid as he talked to her. He was a common man,
blunted in the finer nature by a life of hardship, yet his shrewd spirit
seized on much that less facile people like Puttany learned slowly or
not at all.

Puttany and the child were often together in one long play, broken
only by the man's periods of labor. They basked in a boat near rushes,
waiting for pickerel to strike, or waded a bog to a trout stream at the
other end of the lake, hid in a forest full of windfalls and hoary moss
and tropical growths of brake and fern. Gougou had new strong clothes
and buckskin shoes. For the patois had not been a week in camp before
Brown went to St. Ignace and brought back denim and white and black
calico, which he presented to Françoise.

"She ought to have a kind of second mourning," he explained to Puttany,
who received his word on any matter as law. "Joe La France wasn't worth
wearing first mourning for, but second mourning is decent for her, and
it won't show in the camp like bright colors would."

The world of city-maddened people who swarmed to this lake for their
annual immersion in nature did not often intrude on the camp. Yet the
fact of a woman's presence there could not be concealed, and Puttany was
disciplined to say to strangers, "Dot vas my sister and her little poy."

A tiny cabin was built for Françoise, with the luxuries of a puncheon
floor and one glazed window. She inhabited it in primitive gladness, as
a child adorns a play-house, and was careful to keep it in that trim,
military state which Brown demanded. Françoise had a regard for M'sieu'
Put-tanee, who was neat and ladylike in all his doings, and smiled
amiably at her over her boy's head; but her veneration of M'sieu'
Brownee extended beyond the reach of humor. If he had been a priest he
could have had no more authority. She used to watch him secretly from
her window at dawn, as he put himself through a morning drill to limber
his muscles. Some spectators might have laughed, but she heard as
seriously as if they were the motions of her own soul his tactics with a
stick:

"Straight out--across the shoulder--under the arm--down on the turf!"

There were days when the misty gray lake, dim and delicious, lay veiled
within its irregular shores. Then the lowering sun stood on tree-tops,
a pale red wraith like the ghost of an Indian. And there were days
of sharp, clear shine, when Black Point seemed to approach across the
water, and any moving object could be seen in the Burning--a growth of
green springing where the woods had been swept by fire. The men were
often away, guiding fishing parties from dawn until sunset, or hunting
parties from sunset half the night. Françoise and Gou-gou dwelt in the
camp, having the dogs as their protectors, though neither primitive nor
civilized life menaced them there with any danger. Some evenings, when
few affairs had crowded the day, Brown sat like a patriarch in the midst
of his family, and took Gougou on his knee to hear bear stories. He
supervised the youngster's manners like a mother, and Gougou learned to
go down to the washing-place and use soap when the signs were strong for
bear-dens and deer-stalking.

"I saw a bear come out on the beach once," Brown would tell him, "when
I was stalking for deer and had a doe and fawn in the lake. I smelt him,
but couldn't get him to turn his eyes towards me. I killed both deer,
and skinned them, and cut up one. And that bear went into the woods and
howled for hours. I took all the venison I could carry, but left part
of the carcasses. When we went after them in the morning, the bear had
eaten all up clean."

Bear-dens, Gougou was informed, might be found where there was a
windfall. The bears stuffed cracks between the fallen trees with moss,
and so made themselves a tight house in which to hibernate. If you were
obliged to have bear meat that season when the game was thin, you
could cut a hole into a den, stand by it with an axe, and lop off the
inquiring head stuck out to investigate disturbances. Bears had very
small stomachs, but whatever they ate went to fat. They walked much on
their hind feet, and browsed on nuts or mast when their hunting was not
successful, being able to thrive on little. Usually a father, a mother,
and a cub formed one household in one den.

Brown's mind ran on the subject of households; and he sometimes talked
to Françoise about his mother.

"My mother Gaelics like the Scotch," he said. Françoise could not
imagine what it was to Gaelic. People had not Gaelic-ed on the
Chaudière, where she was brought up until the children were obliged
to scatter from the narrow farm. But the priest had never warned her
against it, and since M'sieu' Brownee's mother was addicted to the
practice, it must be something excellent, perhaps even religious. She
secretly invoked St. Francis, her patron saint, to obtain for her
that mysterious power of Gaelic-ing of which M'sieu' Brownee spoke so
tenderly.

So the summer passed, and frost was already ripening to glory the ranks
on ranks of dense forest pressing to the lake borders. Brown and Puttany
rowed home through an early September evening, lifted their boat to its
cross-piece dock, and pulled the plug out of the bottom to let it drain.
There was no sound, even of the dogs, as they flung their spoil ashore.
It was the very instant of moon-rise. At first a copper rim was answered
by the faintest line in the water. Then the full reddish disk stood upon
a strong copper pillar, smooth and flawless in a rippleless lake, and
that became denuded of its capital as the ball rose over it into the
sky.

"Seems still," remarked Brown, and he ran up the path, shaking leaf
loam like dry tobacco dust from the roots of ferns he had brought to
Françoise. He knew at once that she and Gougou had left the camp. He sat
down on the dog-kennel with his hands on his knees, staring at the dim
earth. Puttany went from tent to cabin, calling his daily playmate,
unable to convince himself that some unusual thing had happened, and he
hoped that Brown would contradict him when he felt compelled to announce
his slow discovery.

"Dey vas gone!"

"Damn you, Puttany!" exploded his partner, "what did you bring her here
for? I didn't want to get into this! I wanted to steer clear of women!
You knew I was soft! You knew her black eyes, and the child that made
her seem like the Virgin, would get in their work on me!"

"No, I didn't," said Puttany, in phlegmatic consternation.

"What's the matter, Frank? Haven't we behaved white to this woman? Have
you done anything, you stupid old Dutchman," cried Brown, collaring
his partner with abrupt violence, "that would drive her out of the camp
without a word?"

"I svear, Prowny," the other gasped, as soon as he had breath for
swearing, "I haf been so polite to her as my own mudder."

The younger man sat down again, dropping lax hands across his knees.
A growl inside the box reminded him that Jim the blood-hound should be
brought to account for this disappearance.

"Come out here!" he commanded, and the lithe beast crept wagging and
apologizing to his side. "What kind of a way is this for you to keep
a camp--Jess sitting in the kitchen, and you in the box, and somebody
carrying off Françoise and the boy, and every rag that would show they
had ever been here--and not a sound out of your cowardly head till we
come home and catch you skulking? I've a notion to take a board and beat
you to death!"

Jim lay down with an abject and dismal whine.

"Where is she?"

Jim lifted his nose and sniffed hopefully, and his master rose up and
dragged him by the collar to the empty cabin. It was the first time
Brown had entered that little cell since its dedication to the woman for
whom it was built. He rubbed Jim's muzzle against the bed, and pointed
to nails in the logs where the clothes of the patois had hung.

"Now you lope out and find them--do you hear?"

Jim, crouching on his belly in acknowledgment that his apprehension had
been at fault during some late encounter, slunk across the camp and took
the path to the hotels.

Brown turned on Puttany following at his heels: "Frank, are you sure Joe
La France is dead?"

"Oh yes, he is det."

"Did you see him die? Were you there when he was buried? Was he put
underground with plenty of dirt on top of him, or did he merely drop in
the water?"

"I vas not there."

"Maybe the lazy hound has resurrected. I've seen these lumbermen dropped
into the water and drowned too often. You can never be sure they won't
be up drinking and fighting to-morrow unless you run a knife through
them."

"He is a det man," affirmed Puttany.

"Then somebody else has carried her off, and I'm going to know all about
it before I come back to camp. If I never come back, you may have the
stuff and land. I'm in this heels over head, and I don't care how soon
things end with me."

"But, Prowny, old poy, I vill help you--"

"You stay here. This is my hunt."

Jim passed the rustic guest-houses without turning aside from the trail.
Brown took no thought of inquiring at their doors, for throughout the
summer Françoise had not once been seen at the hotels. He did, however,
hastily borrow a horse from the stable where he was privileged, and
pursuing the blood-hound along the lake shore, he cantered over a
causeway of logs and earth which had been raised above a swamp.

The trail was very fresh, for Jim, without swerving, followed the road
where it turned at right angles from the shore and wound inland among
stumps. They had nearly reached Allanville, a group of log huts beside a
north-shore railroad, when Jim uttered the bay of victory.

Brown dropped from the saddle and called him sternly back. To be hunting
Françoise with a blood-hound out of leash--how horrible was this!

He tied his horse to a tree and took Jim by the collar, restraining the
creature's fierce joy of discovery. Françoise must be near, unless a
hound whose scent was unerring had become a fool.

What if she had left camp of her own will? She was so quiet, one could
not be sure of her thoughts. Brown was sure of his thoughts. He grinned
in the lonely landscape, seeing himself as he had appeared on recent
Sundays, in his best turtle-tail neck-tie mounted on velvet.

"I've got it bad," he confessed.

Stooping to Jim's collar while the dog whined and strained, he passed a
cabin. And there Jim relaxed in the search and turned around. The moon
stood high enough to make a wan fairy daylight. Gougou, like a gnome,
started from the ground to meet them, and the dog at once lay down and
fawned at his feet.

More slowly approaching from the cabin, Brown saw Françoise, still
carrying in her hand the bundle of her belongings brought from camp. In
the shadow of the house a man watched the encounter, and a sift of rank
tobacco smoke hinted the pipes of fathers and sons resting from the
day's labor on the cabin door-sill or the sward. Voices of children
could be heard, and other dogs gave mouth, so that Brown laid severe
commands on Jim before he could tremblingly speak to Françoise.

"Oh, M'sieu' Brownee, I t'ink maybe you come!"

"But, Françoise, what made you leave?"

"It is my husban's brudder. I not know what to do! He bring us to dese
folks to stay all night till de cars go."

"Why didn't he show himself to us, and take you like a man?"

"Oh, M'sieu' Brownee--he say de priest hexcommunicate me--to
live--so--in de camp! It is not my fault--and I t'ink about you and
M'sieu' Put-tanee--and Gougou he bite his honcle, and kick and scream!"

"Damn the uncle!" swore Brown, deeply.

"Oh, I been so anxion!" sobbed Françoise.

"We must be married right off," said Brown. "I'll fix your
brother-in-law. Françoise, will yon have me for your husband?"

"Me, M'sieu' Brownee?"

"Yes, you--you cursed sweet patois!"

"M'sieu' Brownee, you may call me de cursed patois. I not know
anyt'ings. But when André La France take me away, oh, I t'ink I die! Let
me honly be Françoise to do your mend'! I be 'appier to honly look at
you dan some womans who 'ave 'usban'!"

"Françoise, kiss me--kiss me!" His voice broke with a sob. "If you loved
me you would have me!"

"M'sieu' Brownee, I ado' you!"

Suddenly giving way to passionate weeping, and to all the tenderness
which nature teaches even barbarians to repress, she abandoned herself
to his arms.






End of Project Gutenberg's The Cursed Patois, by Mary Hartwell Catherwood

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CURSED PATOIS ***

***** This file should be named 23247-8.txt or 23247-8.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/2/4/23247/

Produced by David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.



*** START: FULL LICENSE ***

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.org/license).


Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works

1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.  See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.

1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.

1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.

1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.

1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.

1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that

- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."

- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
     License.  You must require such a user to return or
     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
     Project Gutenberg-tm works.

- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
     of receipt of the work.

- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.

1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.

1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.

1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.


Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm

Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.


Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.

The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at http://pglaf.org

For additional contact information:
     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
     Chief Executive and Director
     gbnewby@pglaf.org


Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit http://pglaf.org

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate


Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.

Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.


Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.


Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:

     http://www.gutenberg.org

This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.