stops, swell his voice, hold down the tainly heard us, and perhaps had been pedals, and yet the result will be most listening. depressing, perfect wretchedness.

"Last year," continued he, "that old wretch had his grain thrashed in the barn at the back, where he also opened his ventilator to avoid our all being stifled with the dust, for it comes in his house as well as mine; but this year, in order to prevent Louise from going on with her music, he has given orders for his thrashing to commence three weeks earlier than usual, and opens his barn right opposite. On turning to wish her and Monsieur His idea is to deafen us with the noise, Jean "good night" I perceived George and thus force us to close our windows. behind the leafy hedgerow at the back of Does not such a brute deserve to be sent his father's garden opposite. He was to Toulon, and have all the skin peeled stooping down to hide; he had most cer-off his back with a horsewhip?"

feuds.

I had never seen Monsieur Jean in so | the garden-lane, thinking, as I went, of violent a passion, and, as the unfortunate the abominable consequences of family tic-tac over the way did not cease, while dust filled the air, I had nothing to answer on the spur of the moment; but, after a little reflection, I said,

"It is very annoying, Monsieur Rantzau; but Monsieur Jacques may not have thought of all this. He may have other reasons for thrashing his grain on the front side of his house; we cannot tell. It is always better to put the best construction on things, and not look on the dark side."

I could see Monsieur Jacques' sly smile of satisfaction as he sat on his sheaves in front of his barn; but I could not bring myself to believe all Monsieur Jean thought of him. He had certainly gone too far.

On that same Thursday evening, after supper, George looked in on his return home from his father's saw-mill at Saarrouge.

"So I am, George; sit down, I have one or two specimens, but not of that family. This is a rare one. Bring out the brandycherries, Marie-Barbe; George won't refuse to take one or two with me?"

66

"I have brought you a piece of white "You are a kind-hearted man, Mon-heath, which I gathered on the heights, sieur Florent, and have to keep on good Monsieur Florent," said he pleasantly; terms with everybody; neither do I "I thought you would be pleased to have blame you, for, situated as you are, that it." brigand might take it into his head to turn you out of the Mairie if you were not very cautious; but I tell you things are as I say. I have known him long enough, and I tell you he thinks of nothing but evil; his only enjoyment is to vex others and injure his neighbours. He is always ruminating and turning over in his mind how he can harm the innocent. He is too much of a coward to attempt an open attack, and, besides, he is afraid of the treadmill; but, if he were as brave as he is perverse, you would see strange things come to pass until he would, of course, be stopped by the authorities. Oh, the miserable wretch! And, then, to think the Almighty ordains we should have such brothers! Look; now do' look at him. Wouldn't any one swear he is an old Jew, an old usurer, planning the ruin of his relatives?"

Monsieur Jean did not consider that he was himself the picture of his brother, only that he was bald and Monsieur Jacques' hair was grey.

Passion had totally blinded him; seeing which, and not feeling inclined to get mixed up in the new quarrel, I put the books on the piano.

"Do not take this little disappointment to heart, my dear," said I to Louise. "I had brought you some music, but as we cannot play on account of the din, I will come back next Sunday after vespers, and we will try the new pieces. Monsieur Jacques will not be able to have his grain thrashed on the holy day of rest, you know."

Bowing to Monsieur Jean, I then left by the back door, for, if I had crossed the street, Monsieur Jacques would have called to ask me how I was, and might have shaken hands with me to his brother's face. I therefore went down

By no means," said George, sitting down. When my wife had placed the cherries before us, we talked of the high table-lands on which white heath grows, of the saw-mills, the sale of timber, valuations, and felling. Finally, I came to the barn subject, which was uppermost on my mind."

"By the way, George," said I, “you are now having your barley and oats thrashed in the front barn! Would you believe your uncle Jean fancies you do that to prevent Louise from practising her piano! I of course don't believe anything of the kind, but he

George burst out laughing.

"Well, upon my word, Monsieur Florent," said he, "that squealing and thump ing on a piano from morning to night is a fearful nuisance."

There was no doubt about his becoming a famous timber merchant; and although my tastes were quite different, I was happy to see he was likely to be a thorough man of business.

saw-mills, where George cast up an account of the planks, beams, and cubic metres of logwood belonging to his father. Cartloads were still being brought in from a neighbouring coppice; whole trunks, covered with their bark, were hung by bright chains to chariots drawn by reddish-coloured bullocks. These young animals fastened their feet in the rock, straining every nerve as they pulled, struggling on with haggard eyes under the driver's whip.

We heard the grating of the wheels a We had left Chaumes at five; at half-long way off. The ruts in the gravelpast nine we reached the foot of the roads at the foot of the slope were full of great Langin heights, in which Saar-rouge water, as rapid and clear as quicksilver. takes its rise, and stood in a narrow de- It cooled the poor animals' feet. file, covered here and there with black patches, which showed this to be a spot used for the burning of charcoal.

There was not a soul in the place; the last awnings had been dismounted and carried towards the forges in the valley; nothing was left but the charcoalmakers' hut standing by the side of a spring that was overrun with watercress.

George put his hand through a hole in the door, drew the latch inside, and when we had entered he piled the remains of blackened logs and some dry firwood on the hearth; struck a few sparks, shook the lighted tinder among a handful of dry fern, which instantly took fire, and smoke curled above the lone woods.

All round the defile mountain peaks rose against the sky; the beauty of the country could not be surpassed. The smacking of whips in the valley, the prolonged shout of the woodmen and carriers calling from one mountain to the other, the sound of the axe high above in the trees, the tinkling bell of some stray animal seeking pasture, sounds that joined in the great hum of solitude, and blended with the rustle of leaves and the monotonous fall of the river.

were

What movement and what life, even in such apparent deserted places as these! Labour, work-coalmen, woodcutters, cattle, and all, have to toil summer and winter. But this grand sight conveys an idea too of rest; it raises the soul to the contemplation of eternity.

This is the way primeval man first proceeded: nothing better has since been invented; but in those early times this smoke rising from virgin forests was a I considered all this sitting on the sign that the human soul had awaked, bridge, with my legs dangling over the and that wild beasts had a master. Iparapet, and looking at the old pond half have read that in some book, I do not re-covered with sawdust. Floaters were member where.

When the fire was bright George took two smoked sausages out of his bag, which he buried in the hot ashes; I produced my flagon, and we sat down very cheerfully.

here making one of those rafts which swim down the Saar as far as Saarbrück.

Meanwhile George had finished his work, taken down all his notes, and now made me a sign to start anew. We were both much rested.

The savoury smell of the sausages We took the rugged path, full of knotty filled the interior of the hut; thrushes roots, which runs along the heights above and blue tomtits, birds that love to hover the cart-road. It was very sultry. Crickround human dwellings, hopped and chir-ets and grasshoppers rose by clouds, ruped outside. When the sausages were chasing each other at our feet. Numerquite done we ate our meal with great ap-ous green, swollen-out lizards were pantpetite, each making his knife supply the place of a fork; a gentle wind rising among the leaves meanwhile cooled us.

I should not have wished for a pleasanter or happier life, if the accomplishment of our duties had not called us back to the village.

We rested until eleven, then took up our sticks, and joyfully trudged on to the

ing on the burning sand, scarcely able to drag themselves along to the coppice close by, surfeited, as they were, with the insects they had feasted on. We were bathed in moisture, and walked on under the shade of the dark pine-wood in silence, each indulging in a day-dream of his own.

The distant days of my youth rose be

fore me. I recalled my arrival at Chaumes; the first things that struck me; the things I took pleasure in; the beginning of my friendship with Father Labadie; my respectful love for his daughter, who was always sewing and mending old clothes, now and then casting a timid glance my way; and then I remembered our first words, and my first questions, when she gently withdrew her hand, and said in a tremble, turning aside, "Ask my father, Monsieur Florent." Then, though I was as bashful as she was, our avowals, the promises, the solitary walks, my reveries up the hill, when I would wonder where she was, what she was doing, what she was thinking of. Ah, love and matrimony!

brought up the rear in a blue cotton dress and broad-brimmed, flapping straw hat. Her lovely hair fell in slight disorder about her neck, her cheeks were glowing with animation, and she seemed to he telling the women that the road was very bad, that the cart was not properly loaded, and threatened to fall over each time it rocked from side to side.

We could not hear what she said; we only guessed from her manner the sense of her looks and gestures as we stood admiring the pretty picture framed in by the high mountains around.

George appeared very attentive. "That crop," said he, after a moment, "is very badly stacked; it will all topple over!"

He smiled when the vehicle got in the water and the sand seemed to give way, A minute later we witnessed the most

The forests we were going through reminded me also of the many Thursdays spent here in those bygone times. I do not know what George was think-extraordinary scene. The frightened ing of, but he looked very serious, and suddenly, on perceiving the light break through the yet distant outskirts of the forest, he exclaimed,

"You are a very good walker, Monsieur Florent; are you not tired out?"

"No; I never feel fatigue when I am thinking."

"What are you thinking of?"

"Oh, many things! Of the past-of life. You will know later, George, what a man thinks of when he gets on in age. You are now too young; I cannot explain exactly. You have nothing to do with the past as yet. But what is it you have been thinking of?"

women threw up their arms in great terror, rending the air with their shrieks. Louise, as quick as lightning, ran down to the river, stepped in, and, with her pitchfork supporting the cart on the side it was leaning over, pushed it back as long as she could, crying,

"Here, here, help!-don't be afraid!" But the other women, seeing the danger, did not hasten to join her. Her feeble efforts were insufficient to keep up the falling load; the cart threatened to turn over and crush her.

I shuddered - when George, with a leap, cleared the hedge, and, flying over every obstacle, rushed on; then down "I?really I could not tell." the bank, falling knee-deep in the water: Talking thus, we entered the road lead-in a moment he had snatched the pitching to our valley. It was bordered on one side by the forest; on the other it was divided by a hedge from the grassfields; beyond, ran the river through Monsieur Jean's meadow.

fork from his cousin's hand, and, with fearful might, thrust back the avalanche, which was well-nigh smothering them both, calling out in a wild passion.

"Hue! hue! mille tonnerres! whip your beasts on! — pull ! — pull !"

The weather being very hot that year, harvesting was still going on, and we The women and girls, now seeing all heard the laugh of peasant-girls making danger over, ran to the rescue, pushing hay. Through the long grass and bul- up the load with their rakes, while old rushes we could see a cart, which had Dominique at the front was belabouring been heavily laden, just coming down a the oxen with the stick end of his whip. sandy path on the opposite bank towards They pulled in good earnest, quite scared the river. It was intended it should by the noise, and the big cart gaining its wade through the water, which was very equilibrium, by degrees reached the oplow on account of the dryness. When-posite side of the river; the crop was ever the wheels sunk in the wet sand it swayed to and fro, and more and more as the ruts became deeper.

saved.

The valley echoed with joyous shouts, and George returned the pitchfork to Louise, saying with a strange smile, “I just came in good time, didn't I?" "Indeed you did," replied Louise with Thank you, George.'

Men and women, with rakes on their shoulders, were looking at it. Monsieur Jean's black and white oxen were majestically walking in front, and Louise a blush.