Bon Marche

It was a time of wonder and excitement, a time of beginnings: The British have just signed the surrender at Yorktown, and Charles Dupree, uncertain even of his age, has walked away from a French ship and into a new country. Here, no one will care about his background here, in America, all things will be possible for the French street urchin. All he will have to do is work, and that does not frighten Charles.

Growing with the nation, Charles moves west, and it is in the rough river town of N...