son.

As the morning dawned he opened his eyes, and said,

"Mother, where am I?"

O the joy of that voice; it was his own accent, though weak and trembling. She gave him some nourishment, and with a few loving words he fell asleep again. The danger was passed-her son was spared.

Catherine continued in her office of nurse, for he was very much reduced, and required constant care, and though all excitement was strictly forbidden, and he was scarcely allowed to speak, it seemed to do him good to watch her as she moved lightly about the room.

One afternoon, when he had recovered a little strength, he was sitting propped up by pillows. The window was open, and the fresh spring air was blowing in, while the warm sunshine illumined the room. Catherine was arranging a bouquet of flowers which she had just brought in, when Victor called her to him, and said,

"Catherine, I fear this sick-room is but a dull place for you. I shall tell my mother to invite M. Lubin to spend the evening here to cheer you."

"Do not be cruel, Victor; M. Lubin is nothing to me. Did he save my life?"

"And the fact of my having had that great happiness is to weigh down the scale even against M. Lubin and all his advantages."

66

Certainly, if the scale had not been weighed down long before by something else."

"And what was that something else?" cried he, drawing her toward him, "what wonderful thing could out - balance M. Lubin, his fashion, his fortune, his jewelry, the carriage he would provide you, the rich dresses you would be enabled to buy; what was it?"

She looked into his eager face, her eyes were filled with tears, and with a trembling voice, as she laid her head upon his shoulder, she said,

THE GIPSIES OF SWITZERLAND.

THERE in Switzerland a class of in

Tdividuals who may be called the gipsies

of that country: they are not, however, a separate nor a foreign race, and they are not numerous. They lead a nomadic life, wandering upon the frontiers of the different cantons or of the states bordering upon the Helvetic Confederation. Their most ordinary visible occupations are those of basket-making and fowling; they also deal in coarse pottery-ware; but they live principally by marauding and upon public charity, frequently having nothing more for a roof than a cloth-covered cart, a miserable house, or rather rolling cabin, * which witnessed their birth, and perhaps will witness their death.

They appear thus here and there, now in one place, then in another; passing through villages, stopping, if they are permitted, in the fairs and markets, and in the evening retiring into the woods and desert places. As formerly the poor boys of Paris found a retreat under the arches of the Pont Neuf, which remained a long time unfinished, so one of the bands of these poor people had but recently selected a domicile in one of the old covered wooden bridges formerly so common in Switzerland, thrown over a torrent at the foot of a ravine not far from Vevay, at the frontier of the cantons of Vaud and Fribourg; this bridge was no longer used, and they were thus able to appropriate it as an asylum.

Composed of one or two families, in all cases of a sufficiently limited number of individuals, their little bands had no other tie beyond themselves except that of a similar mode of life, the privilege of living somewhere and that of belonging to Switzerland, German Switzerland, where they are more frequently met than in French Switzerland, and to which they belong by language at least.

They believe, and indeed assert, that they are of Swiss origin, but they have no other proof of it than their assertion, their

ealogy, which is far from offering the continuation and moral certainty afforded by the genealogy of an Arab tribe. Proofs and legal documents they cannot furnish in the slightest degree. Therefore the Swiss reject them, each canton seeking to throw them off upon another, and the confederation upon the neighboring states. Hence

yet they were divided into several tribes or corporations, each having their councils, their representatives, their funds, their revenues, their arsenal, constituting, therefore, so many particular communes in the general commune, and thus portioning out and stirring up political life on all points

at onco.

It is not quite the same in Switzerland at the present time, modern ideas not comporting with such localization and concentration of life with its advantages and inconveniences. But each commune, great or small, still has its proper sphere, its doctoral corps, its executive power chosen by itself, its revenues, its resources, great or small, of which it disposes with more or less liberty, more or less limited according to the cantons, but is only subservient to the surveillance of the government, not to its pleasure.

One person could be a member of several communes at once, but it is necessary to be a member of one at least, to

secure somewhere the right of citizenship, as it is called, in a city, a town, or a country village. It is really the place of one's family origin, rather than that which he now inhabits, that actually decides the matter.

This right, which in many families extends back several centuries, is transmitted from father to son, and even to the unmarried daughters; those who are married or widowed belong to the community and township of their husbands. It is not necessary to reside there, nor even to attend the political elections; but if from time to time, especially on the occasion of his marriage, a person does not verify his right by the accomplishment of certain formalities, which, in this case, are absolutely rigorous in some of the cantons, he runs the risk of seeing himself refused afterward, and losing his citizenship sooner or later. And this would be a real loss in a political point of view, as well as in other respects.

Those communes which are able, and the greater part of them are so, are bound to assist the poor citizens according to their means, even when they have not resided there for several generations. The poor who are not citizens are left to what the commune does in general for the public assistance. The citizens only, and among them those alone who are resident, participate in the communal advantages resulting everywhere from the annual distribution which the commune makes of a portion of its revenues in kind, such as butter, cheese, wine, and wood.

These advantages may be quite considerable if the commune is rich and its resident citizens few, two circumstances which, without doubt, rarely meet.

There is, for instance, a village of small extent, situated at the foot of the Jura, which has possessed, in the commune itself, and independent of the individual fortunes of its inhabitants, in forests, mountains, pasturage, and invested money, a capital of at least a million of francs. All

those of its resident citizens having each a residence to themselves, receive annually in wood, butter, cheese, etc., to the value of two or three hundred francs or more, according to the good or bad management of communal affairs, the disposition to economy or expense in the administration, the absence of extra and temporary charges, and the number of the citizens. Distributions of this amount, or even less, are not to be despised in a rustic household. This commune, otherwise quite rural, sustains a very good primary school, has a little stone building dignified with the name of college, and some magnificent public fountains, which flow incessantly and pour out tons of pure water. All this, the commune defrays, besides the ordinary funeral expenses of its citizens indiscriminately. There are also other communes in analogous situations.

It is understood that this is not the case with a large number. Many of the communes are even poor; they have little or nothing, through bad administration or