tants raised horses, the famous Limousin breed,
which is said to be a legacy of the Arabs when they descended by the
Pyrenees into France and were cut to pieces by the battle-axes of the
Franks under Charles Martel. The heights are barren. A hot, baked,
reddish soil shows a region where chestnuts flourish. The springs,
carefully applied to irrigation, water the meadows only, nourishing
the sweet, crisp grass, so fine and choice, which produces this race of
delicate and high-strung horses,--not over-strong to bear fatigue,
but showy, excellent for the country of their birth, though subject to
changes if transplanted. A few mulberry trees lately imported showed an
intention of cultivating silk-worms.

Like most of the villages in this world Montegnac had but one street,
through which the high road passed. Nevertheless there was an upper and
a lower Montegnac, reached by lanes going up or going down from the main
street. A line of houses standing along the brow of the hill presented
the cheerful sight of terraced gardens, which were entered by flights
of steps from the main street. Some had their steps of earth, others
of pebbles; here and there old women were sitting on them, knitting or
watching children, and keeping up a conversation from the upper to the
lower town across the usually peaceful street of the little village;
thus rumors spread easily and rapidly in Montegnac. All the gardens,
which were full of fruit-trees, cabbages, onions, and other vegetables,
had bee-hives along their terraces.

Another line of houses, running down from the main street to the river,
the course of which was outlined by thriving little fields of hemp and
the sorts of fruit trees which like moisture, lay parallel with the
upper town; some of the houses, that of the post-house, for instance,
were in a hollow, and were well-situated for certain kinds of work, such
as weaving. Nearly all of them were shared by walnut-trees, the tree
_par excellence_ of strong soils.

On this side of the main street at the end farthest from the great plain
was a dwelling-house, very much larger and better cared for than those
in other parts of the village; around it were other houses equally well
kept. This little hamlet, separated from the village by its gardens, was
already called Les Tascherons, a name it keeps to the present day.

The village itself mounted to very little, but thirty or more outlying
farms belonged to it. In the valley, leading down t