the village street, he drove her
to help her digestion. "It matters little to me," he said to himself,
"what becomes of the moon, for there is a new one each month, but I
intend to take care of my good donkey." And soon all Lessoc marveled to
see Colin and Cocotte, Cocotte and Colin, passing and repassing
continually over the same road, one apparently frightened, the other
sadly bored by the exercise. "Is your donkey ill?" asked the good mayor
at last. "Woe is me, she is ruined," replied Colin, "for she has
swallowed the moon and will not give her up." Whereupon the mayor, after
grave reflection remarked, "If la Cocotte has not yet gotten rid of the
moon, poor Colin already is rid of his senses."

At the communal council, the mayor presented at length the strange case.
"If a new moon appears," he declared, "we may be reassured, but to avoid
the possibility of further accident, we will place a spacious roof over
the fountain." This wise decision was adopted to the general
satisfaction, and such was the authentic origin of the elegant fountain
of Lessoc.

In ancient chronicles and modern publications many similar stories are
repeated, while a multitude of ballads, of legends taken from the lips
of the old peasants, constitute a precious and abounding document of the
ancient Gruyere customs.

But uniquely characteristic as are these Gruyere people, the history of
their country is still more extraordinary. Almost negligible in wealth
or population, the little mountain province, lying midway between
France, Austria, and Savoy, held in the days of its prosperity an almost
unexplainably important position beside the great monarchies of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Midway also between the Berne and
Fribourg republics, the Gruyere counts held something very nearly
approaching a balance of power between Savoy and the Confederates.
Feudal by race and by the independence of their little principality,
they were so trusted by the Confederates and so powerful with Savoy,
that they repeatedly acted as arbitrators in their mutual quarrels, and
by this high influence were sharers and at times framers of the treaties
with the neighboring kingdoms, and admitted to the diplomatic councils
of Europe. They were not only valorous in the defence of their country
but by the Latin charm of their race were adored by their subjects, and
held in great favor by the dukes of Savoy, themselves allied by many
inter-marriages with all the