eeded to bring out their full character. "The country was
naked," said Farrabesche, "and madame has clothed it."

Since these great undertakings were begun, Veronique had been called
"Madame" throughout the whole neighborhood. When the rains ceased in
June, 1833, they tried the irrigating channels through the planted
fields, and the young verdure thus nourished soon showed the superior
qualities of the _marciti_ of Italy and the meadows of Switzerland. The
system of irrigation, modelled on that of the farms in Lombardy, watered
the earth evenly, and kept the surface as smooth as a carpet. The nitre
of the snow dissolving in these channels no doubt added much to the
quality of the herbage. The engineer hoped to find in the products of
succeeding years some analogy with those of Switzerland, to which this
nitrous substance is, as we know, a source of perpetual riches.

The plantations along the roads, sufficiently moistened by the water
allowed to run through the ditches, made rapid growth. So that in 1838,
six years after Madame Graslin had begun her enterprise, the stony
plain, regarded as hopelessly barren by twenty generations, was
verdant, productive, and well planted throughout. Gerard had built five
farmhouses with their dependencies upon it, with a thousand acres to
each. Gerard's own farm and those of Grossetete and Fresquin, which
received the overflow from Madame's domains, were built on the same
plan and managed by the same methods. The engineer also built a charming
little house for himself on his own property. When all was completely
finished, the inhabitants of Montegnac, instigated by the present
mayor, who was anxious to retire, elected Gerard to the mayoralty of the
district.

In 1840 the departure of the first herd of cattle sent from Montegnac
to the Paris markets was made the occasion of a rural fete. The farms
of the plain raised fine beasts and horses; for it was found, after the
land was cleaned up, that there were seven inches of good soil which the
annual fall of leaves, the manure left by the pasturage of animals,
and, above all, the melting of the snows contained in the valley of the
Gabou, increased in fertility.

It was in this year that Madame Graslin found it necessary to obtain a
tutor for her son, who was now eleven years of age. She did not wish
to part with him, and yet she was anxious to make him a thoroughly
well-educated man. Monsieur Bonnet wrote to the Seminary. Madame
Graslin,