the
women up, who usually slept the whole morning long.

The peasants were up already, and the women went busily from house to
house, carefully bringing short, starched, muslin dresses in
band--boxes, or very long wax tapers, with a bow of silk fringed with
gold in the middle, and with dents in the wax for the fingers.

The sun was already high in the blue sky, which still had a rosy tint
towards the horizon, like a faint trace of dawn, remaining. Families of
fowls were walking about outside houses, and here and there a black
cock, with a glistening breast, raised his head, which was crowned by
his red comb, flapped his wings, and uttered his shrill crow, which the
other cocks repeated.

Vehicles of all sorts came from neighboring parishes, and discharged
tall, Norman women, in dark dresses, with neck--handkerchiefs crossed
over the bosom, which were fastened with silver brooches, a hundred
years old.

The men had put on their blouses over their new frock--coats, or over
their old dress--coats of green cloth, the two tails of which hung down
below their blouses. When the horses were in the stable, there was a
double line of rustic conveyances along the road; carts, cabriolets,
tilburies, char--a--bancs, traps of every shape and age, resting on
their shafts, or else with them in the air.

The carpenter's house was as busy as a beehive. The ladies, in
dressing--jackets and petticoats, with their hanging down, thin, short
hair, which looked as if it were faded and worn by use, were busy
dressing the child, who was standing motionless on a table, while
Madame Tellier was directing the movements of her battalion. They washed
her, did her hair, dressed her, and with the help of a number of pins,
they arranged the folds of her dress, and took in the waist, which was
too large.

Then, when she was ready, she was told to sit down and not to move, and
the women hurried off to get ready themselves.

The church bell began to ring again, and its tinkle was lost in the air,
like a feeble voice which is soon drowned in space. The candidates came
out of the houses, and went towards the parochial building which
contained the two--school and the mansion house--and which stood quite
at one end of the village, while the church was situated at the other.

The parents, in their very best clothes, followed their children, with
awkward looks, and those clumsy movements of the body, which is always
bent at work.

The little girls di