A PLAGUE OF MICE 159
so often, however, that the Speaker of the House issued a warrant to bring him in. Well, he was brought in eventually. On the way to Charlottetown he offered his captor his fees to let him go, but Coles, the captor, would not listen to such bribery. Then, Mr. Worrell pointed out to him the advantages he would gain. If he took the fees, and let him go, he would be ordered to go again after him, and thus would receive double fees. Coles still refused. Mr. Worrell remarked later, he would not have allowed himself to be taken if he had known that the bribe would be refused.
Here, in the old days of the French occupation, lived Marie Decloux, widow of Michel Loyal dit Mignet. She was thirty—eight and had five children——~ Michel Loyal, thirteen; Marie Rose, twelve; Jacques, ten; Charlotte, seven; Modeste, four. She was also rich in worldly goods, owning four oxen, three cows, two calves, a ram, six sheep, a sow, ten geese, and eight hens.
Some of her neighbours were much poorer than she. Jacques Le Prieur, for instance, who had married Marguerite Michel dite Laurine, had only one sheep and three hens.
Joseph Fricond dit Picard, who married Marguerite Prieur, had two children; and two cows, a calf, and two hens.
This was in the year 1752.
\Ve are now in the district of the Island's second communal settlement—Bangor, and we pedal along. Like Belle River, it is easy to tell which farms belong to the communal group, for their splendidly built barns, all alike, all modern, and all large, stand as striking evidence of the success of the communal endeavour.