A Horse for Lisette

Lisette was a Metis, the daughter of a French Canadian voyageur and a Cree women. To thirteen-year-old Lisette's horror, her papa had pledged her hand in marriage to Fergus MacDonald in hopes that it would raise their status in the community. Papa assumed that Fergus MacDonald would become "le grand bourgeois" and had accepted a sleek horse in exchange for Lisette's hand. But when the horse shed caught fire one night, Lisette risked her own life to save the horses and in a moment of determination, sent Fergus' horse running home. To her surprise, her papa only said "there will be other horses."