h, too,' said Robert, 'for they do gabble it
fast. I heard a fellow chattering in the steerage, coming up the river
yesterday morning: by the way, he and Andy had struck up a friendship:
and such bowing as they had to each other's incomprehensible lingo!'

'I wonder what he is doing to-day,' said Arthur reflectively; 'he asked
me so particularly whether we should want him again till the evening.'

'Found out a nest of Irish somewhere, I suppose.'

'There's a fellow taking off his hat to us,' remarked Arthur, as they
passed a carter. 'Everybody seems to bow to everybody in this country.
But did you ever see such an old-fashioned vehicle as he drives? And he
keeps talking to himself and his horse all the way, apparently.'

Rapidly walking down the fine road to the plain, they were not long
in nearing a group of neat white houses round the invariable shining
steeple.

'The village looks as sociable as the people,' said Robert. 'How neat
everything seems!--Hallo, Arthur, we've come in for some festivity or
other, by all the gay ribbons about.'

'Bon jour, Madame,' said Arthur boldly, to a tidy old lady, sitting in
her green verandah. 'Nous sommes des etrangers--I'd like to ask her what
it's all about,' he whispered confidentially to Robert; 'but I'm out of
my depth already.'

The aged _Canadienne_ arose, with the politeness so natural to her
Gallic descent, and bade them welcome. But sounds issuing from the
opposite house riveted their attention. 'As sure as I'm here, that's
Andy's violin,' exclaimed Arthur; 'I'd know his scrape anywhere;' and he
crossed the road in a moment.

Without doubt Andy was the player, ay, and the performer too; for he was
dancing a species of quickstep solo, surrounded by a circle of grinning
and delighted _habitans_. The most perfect gravity dwelt in his own
countenance meanwhile, alloyed by just a spice of lurking fun in his
deep-set eyes, which altogether faded, as a candle blown out, when
suddenly he perceived the accession to the company. Silence succeeded
the dead blank on his features, down hung the violin and its bow on
either side, and the corners of his mouth sunk into a dismal curve.

'Go on, old boy--scrape away,' shouted Arthur hilariously. 'So many
pretty faces would inspire anybody;' and whether it was that the
black-eyed Canadian damsels felt the compliment through the foreign
idiom, there was considerable blushing and bridling as the speaker's
glance travelled round the