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THIS is a great day in our village, || prepare it. Have you a carriage, la fête patronale, and we celebrate your horses are sure of three days' it gaily. I say we, for in truth the || holidays, for it is impossible to catch hilarity of these people is catching, a glimpse of coachey any where but and it is impossible to see with what at the fair. Nobody, however, thinks eagerness they give themselves up to of finding fault, for the words C'est the enjoyment of the fête, without aujourdhui la fête patronale furnish becoming, in some degree, a par- an ample excuse for the neglect of taker of the pleasure it affords them. all business. Turn where you will, nothing meets What a scene of triumph is the your eye but smiling faces prome- fair for the village coquette how nading in groups, stopping before proudly does she display the various the temporary boutiques to purchase gifts which prove the superiority of fairings, or eagerly pressing forward her charms, or at least her adroitness to enjoy a ride in the little vehicles in turning them to account! The whirled round by a wooden horse, || pretty sautoir tied carelessly round or to witness the gambols of Punch || her throat; the new ribbons that adorn and Judy.

her bonnet; the ear-rings, beads, -La fête patronale, which lasts for chains, with which she is almost as three days, is the Saturnalia of the profusely decorated as an Otaheitean lower classes. No tradesman thinks fashionable, are all presents from her of doing a stroke of work. Your rustic admirers, and are displayed gardener comes cap in hand, not to by her with as much exultation as a ask your permission to join the re- victorious general would feel in shewvels, for that is always taken for grant-ing the colours of the enemy. Our ed; but to inform you, that he is go- rustic damsels vie with each other ing to have the honour of drinking in this display; but there is one, and your health in the fair, which is a she too the prettiest of them, who civil intimation that he expects you has never yet been seen to exhibit a to give him wherewith to pay for trophy of the kind: her only fairings his wine. If you dine early, the were the modest gifts of her parents chances are a hundred to one that or of her grandfather. It is delight the cook spoils your dinner in her ea- ful to see her leading the old man gerness to get to the fair; and if you up and down the fair, supporting have it late, it is equally probable his feeble steps with the tenderest that she makes you wait an hour or solicitude; now stopping to shew him twoje because she cannot prevail up- any think that she thinks will please on herself to come back in time to him, then winning her way through

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the crowd to get him a seat. All the compliments paid to herself, and they are numerous, are heard with the most perfect indifference; but the words, "Truly you are as hearty as ever!"" How well you look!" "You are grown young again!" addressed to her grandfather, call up such a bright blush, accompanied with a glowing dimpled smile, and eyes dancing with pleasure, as make her at the moment one of the loveliest creatures I ever looked upon. Never were the epithets belle et bonne better applied than to this pretty rustic, whose family's story-(don't grumble, good reader, it shall be a short one)-I am tempted to relate. to Twenty-five years ago Jacques Perlet was the richest farmer in our village. His property was of his own acquiring, and he had two sons to inherit it. The eldest was extremely industrious, frugal, and sober; the younger rather wild, and tainted with the despicable ambition of being the king of his company, but in the main good-hearted. Jacques, the elder brother, formed an attachment to Jeannette Cloud, the daughter of a labourer, the prettiest, and unques-tionably the most industrious, girl in the village. His choice displeased old Perlet, who positively forbade -him to think of the girl. "What," said he, "have I been toiling and moiling all my life only to make money that thou and thy brother may enjoy it like gentlemen when my head is laid low? You may marry women who would raise our family in the world; and wouldst thou unite thyself to one who has not a farthing, and whose birth is even lower than thy own? Parbleu! do so if thou wilt, but not a sou of mine shalt thou ever enjoy. If thy brother marries

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to please me, he shall have all; and if he don't, mort de ma vie, I'll find heirs I warrant me."; ei bongous

This declaration was a thunderbolt to poor Jacques, then in this nineteenth year: he submitted, how ever, to the will of the proud old man; but he could not resolve to renounce his Jeannette. However, though he considered himself bound, he left her free; and when the law made him at twenty-one the master of his own actions, she was still disengaged, and as much attached to him as ever.

The young man threw himself at his father's feet; he pleaded his cause with all the eloquence that a true and tender affection could inspire. "The family of Jeannette," said he, " have been distinguished even for centuries past for their honesty. She is herself the best daughter and the most hard-working girl in the village. We shall have youth, health, and love to begin with; add to them your consent and your blessing, that of heaven will follow it, and we shall require no more to enable us to provide for ourselves." :

"Never!" replied the inexorable Perlet, "never! Marry if you will, but neither my blessing nor consent shall accompany your union." Five years more passed away; the affection of the young people continued unabated, but the situation of Jeannette was changed: she had lost both her parents, and was upon the point of going as servant to a farmer in the neighbourhood. Jacques went to the curé, who was looked up to as a father by all the parishioners; they had a long conversation in private, and as soon as the young man left him, the venerable ecclesiastic hastened to the house of old Perlét.

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All his influence was exerted for the || lovers, but in vain; he could only succeed in inducing the old man to declare, that though he would never consent to the marriage, he would lay no malediction on his son for contracting it. He was determined never to aid or assist him in any way, but at the same time he neither wished him harm, nor would do him any if he had the power. "Hard-hearted old man," said the curé indignantly as he quitted him, " you break the bonds of nature, and disunite yourself from a worthy and dutiful son. Take care that you do not one day repent the sacrifice you have made to avarice and ambition."

Jacques took a small farm, married his Jeannette, and began housekeeping in the most frugal and humble style. Oliver, the second son, also married soon after: his wife was a woman of good family; she had also some fortune. As she valued herself exceedingly upon her birth, it was some time before she would listen to the addresses of Oliver, and as the old man was exceedingly desirous of the match, he offered at last to make over all his property to his son, on condition of receiving a moderate annuity for his life. While this project was in agitation, -Jacques heard of it; he flew to his father, and besought him not to part - with his property in his lifetime. "It is not on my own account that I > speak," cried he," but on thine, my father. I know my brother's heart is good; I know that he can be bound down to the payment of the annuity; but remember, that he is not industrious, that he loves pleasure, and has no economy. O my father, risk not then the chance of being Left destitute in thy old age!"

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The marriage took place. It was agreed that the father should, live with the young couple; but in a little time Madame Perlet discovered that her father-in-law's manners were so vulgar, and his ways altogether so very disagreeable, that she thought it better he should go; and, as he, on his part, found that there was nó living with a woman who was so ig norant, that she knew nothing of the business of a farm, so idle, that she passed all her time in dressing and gadding about; and who, to crown all, had so little affection for her own relations, as to say you instead of thou whenever she addressed them, they parted.

Perlet now began to feel that his old age was joyless and solitary, but he comforted himself with the idea that he had at least aggrandized his family, and that he was placed above want.

His annuity was regularly paid, and if Oliver did not come very often to see him, his behaviour when he did was that of an affectionate son. But the marriage which the young man had contracted, in obedience to the ambitious views of his father, turned out destructive to his happiness, and eventually to his property. His wife did not love him, and by her want of attention to his domestic comforts and her haughty airs she estranged him every day more and more from home. He became connected with a set of low gamblers, and before five years had elapsed he was a beggar. Every thing he had was seized, and his wife and family turned out into the street. vi

Jacques' first care was to receive them into his house; his next to seek

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his father, to whom he broke the dreadful news with the tenderest caution. The old man listened to him with an air of stupefaction. "Rouse thyself, my father," said he, ❝and join with me in blessing that Providence who has given thee still a comfortable home."" What dost thou say, a home?"" Yes, and one where thou wilt be the sole master. Every thing has prospered with us; I am already rich enough to provide all the comforts that thy declining years render necessary. My wife will cherish thee; my child will be the plaything and the solace of thy old age. Come then, father, come to share our happiness, and to give us the pardon and the blessing for which we have never ceased to languish."

with them, and from that day has received from them every attention that filial! love can bestow. The blessing of heaven continues with honest Jacques, who not only pro vides for his father, but has enabled his brother to establish himself in a business by which he gains a decent maintenance. Jeannette, his only child, is, as he had predicted she would be, the solace of her grandfather's age. She is also the joy of her parents, and the pride of our village.

But, bless me, it is very late, and I shall hardly have time to make my toilette for the ball-not Mr. Mayor's ball, good reader, but the dance on the green, where every soul, young and old, in the village and its environs, who do not disdain to be merPerlet returned with his son. He ry, are at this moment assembled in was met at the threshold by his daugh- their best attire and their best looks, ter-in-law, who, on her knees, and with a firm resolution to dance as holding her infant in her arms, beg-well and as long as ever they can, in ged the long-withheld blessing. It honour of la fete patronale of our was cordially and sincerely bestowed. || village. The old man took up his residence

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U TO MR. NEVERMOVE. Mr. LOITERER,

I AM a very ill-used man; and what makes my case seem harder is, that every body persists in declaring I must be one of the happiest men in the world. Now certainly I must know my own feelings best; and I protest to you, that I am miserable, positively miserable, through the confounded good-humour of my wife. This, you will say, is a startling assertion; but have a little patience, and if I do not prove the fact to a demonstration, it must be because

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you are, like all the rest of the world, unconvinceable."

I have good health, a moderate fortune, and, as every body says, an excellent wife. To do the woman' justice, she has her good qualities," and if it were not for this tiresome equanimity of temper, we should live very well together. I married, as I suppose most people do marry, for the sake of having a companion who could participate in my feelings, and share my pleasures and troubles: to" do my dear moiety justice, she is ready enough to take part in the

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former, but she provokingly denies || happiness; that I will enjoy as often

as I please the satisfaction of declar
ing myself the most miserable dog
in existence, and even of confirming
it with a good round oath if I please;
and I protest, that if she attemptssin
any way to obstruct the performance
of this my resolution, I shall leave
her to be happy in her own way.
am, sir, your very obedient,

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GREGORY GROWE A

JU. Vieniams I TO THE LOITERERS Sila ik. Mr. LOITERER,

I flatter myself, that you will not refuse to insert the complaint of one who, after living twenty-five years in peace and harmony with every body, has, unfortunately, been drawn into the commission of matrimony, and by that one rash act excluded, as it should seem, from any thing like quiet

that I have any of the latter. It is true, that as to essentials I have no cause to complain of my lot; but you know very well, Mr. Loiterer, that in every situation trifling circumstances will occur to betray one into a hasty expression of fretfulness or ill-humour, As, however, I am not naturally peevish nor discontented, if my wife would but appear to enter into my cause of complaint, the humour would subside of itself: but no, sir, she piques herself on having a temper that nothing can ruffle; and As it is evident from the ac not content with insulting me by pre- count you give of yourself, that your serving the most abominable calm-habits must be those of a quiet man, ness while I am in a passion, she sets about reasoning me out of it forsooth; tells me I have no cause to complain; that the evil, whatever it is, exists only in my own imagination; that nobody can be better off than I am; and she generally winds up her harangue by declaring, that it is a very great shame I am not more thankfulness. My husband was represented for the happiness I enjoy. If any acquaintance is present, they are sure to take my wife's side of the question; and if I make any complaint of her in her absence, I am certain to be told she is in the right. But, sir, I say, she is not in the right; and I am convinced, that, with all her pretended mildness and moderation, she is no better than a downright despot at bottom, who would force me to be happy in spite of my teeth. However, I am resolved that she shan't have her way. I will stand up for the privileges of an|tuality, does a servant make the most Englishman; and among them, thank trifling mistake, my gentleman throws heaven! that of grumbling at all times himself into a fury, raves and swears and in all seasons is one of the fore- at the offending party, and even remost. So I take this method of giv- proaches me, though I am not in ing public notice to madam, that I any way concerned in the affair, with am resolved not to be worried into what he calls my provoking coolness.

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to me before marriage by our mutu></ al friends as one of the best men in the world, who had no fault on earth but a little hastiness of temper. I thought that this defect could not be very prejudicial to our happiness, as my disposition is remarkably placid, and I was certain that I should give him no cause to complain. But, alas! sir, he is one of those people who cannot live without complaint; cause or no cause, it is all the same to him.

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