had known the projects of splendid charity, formed by
that young lady, whose heart was so generous, whose mind so elevated,
whose soul so great! On the eve of her death, as a kind of prelude to
her magnificent designs, after a conversation, the subject of which I
must keep secret, even from you, she put into my hands a considerable
sum, saying, with her usual grace and goodness: 'I have been threatened
with ruin, and it might perhaps come. What I now confide to you will at
least be safe--safe--for those who suffer. Give much--give freely--make
as many happy hearts as you can. My happiness shall have a royal
inauguration!!' I do not know whether I ever told you, my friend,
that, after those fatal events, seeing Dagobert and his wife reduced to
misery, poor 'Mother Bunch' hardly able to earn a wretched subsistence,
Agricola soon to become a father, and myself deprived of my curacy, and
suspended by my bishop, for having given religious consolations to
a Protestant, and offered up prayers at the tomb of an unfortunate
suicide--I considered myself justified in employing a small portion of
the sum intrusted to me by Mdlle. de Cardoville in the purchase of this
farm in Dagobert's name.

"Yes, my friend, such is the origin of my fortune. The farmer to
whom these few acres formerly belonged, gave us the rudiments of our
agricultural education, and common sense, and the study of a few good
practical books, completed it. From an excellent workman, Agricola has
become an equally excellent husbandman; I have tried to imitate him, and
have put my hand also to the plough there is no derogation in it, for
the labor which provides food for man is thrice hallowed, and it is
truly to serve and glorify God, to cultivate and enrich the earth He has
created. Dagobert, when his first grief was a little appeased, seemed to
gather new vigor from this healthy life of the fields; and, during his
exile in Siberia, he had already learned to till the ground. Finally, my
dear adopted mother and sister, and Agricola's good wife, have divided
between them the household cares; and God has blessed this little colony
of people, who, alas! have been sorely tried by misfortune, and who now
only ask of toil and solitude, a quite, laborious, innocent life, and
oblivion of great sorrows. Sometimes, in our winter evenings, you have
been able to appreciate the delicate and charming mind of the gentle
'Mother Bunch,' the rare poetical imagination of Agricola, the