s_ of that portion of Le
Morvan which is immediately adjacent to Burgundy enjoy the same
abundance, and appreciate the advantages of good living equally with
them. But this is not the case with their _confreres_ who reside in the
uplands, amongst the arid and volcanic mountains, without roads, and the
thickly timbered hill-district which joins the Nivernais. There the
village pastors are poor, thin, and badly fed; fairly buried in the
forest, and surrounded by a population more wretched and squalid than
the rats of their own churches;--they seem as it were abandoned by
everybody. That which I am about to relate will prove this, and show
what a deplorable existence theirs is, and the ingenious methods to
which they are obliged to have recourse to keep up a fair outside.

One of them thus exiled to a most deserted part of our forests, and who,
the whole year, except on a few rare occasions, lived only on fruit and
vegetables, hit upon a most admirable expedient for providing an animal
repast to set before the _cures_ of the neighbourhood, when one or the
other, two or three times during the year, ventured into these dreadful
solitudes, with a view of assuring himself with his own eyes that his
unfortunate colleague had not yet died of hunger. The _cure_ in question
possessed a pig, his whole fortune: and you will see, gentle reader, the
manner in which he used it.

Immediately the bell of his presbytery announced a visitor, (the bell
was red with rust, and its iron tongue never spoke unless to announce a
formal visit,) and that his cook had shown his clerical friend into the
parlour, the master of the house, drawing himself up majestically, said
to his housekeeper (_cures_ fortunately always have, cousins, nieces, or
house-keepers), as Louis XIV. might have said to Vatal, "Brigitte, let
there be a good dinner for myself and my friend." Brigitte, although she
knew there were only stale crusts and dried peas in her larder, seemed
in no degree embarrassed by this order; she summoned to her assistance
"Toby, the Carrot," so called because his hair was as red as that of a
native of West Galloway, and leaving the house together, they both went
in search of the pig.

Toby the Carrot, a youth of seventeen, was the presbyter's page, a poor
half-starved devil that the _cure_ had taken into his service, who
lodged him badly, boarded him worse, and gave him no clothes at all; but
who, nevertheless, in his moments of good-humour--th