Souvestre.

_THE GROAC'H OF THE ISLE OF LOK_

IN old times, when all kinds of wonderful things happened in Brittany,
there lived in the village of Lanillis a young man named Houarn Pogamm
and a girl called Bellah Postik. They were cousins, and as their mothers
were great friends, and constantly in and out of each other's houses,
they had often been laid in the same cradle, and had played and fought
over their games.

'When they are grown up they will marry,' said the mothers; but just as
every one was beginning to think of wedding bells, the two mothers died,
and the cousins, who had no money, went as servants in the same house.
This was better than being parted, of course, but not so good as having
a little cottage of their own, where they could do as they liked, and
soon they might have been heard bewailing to each other the hardness of
their lots.

'If we could only manage to buy a cow and get a pig to fatten,' grumbled
Houarn, 'I would rent a bit of ground from the master, and then we could
be married.'

'Yes,' answered Bellah, with a deep sigh; 'but we live in such hard
times, and at the last fair the price of pigs had risen again.'

'We shall have long to wait, that is quite clear,' replied Houarn,
turning away to his work.

Whenever they met they repeated their grievances, and at length Houarn's
patience was exhausted, and one morning he came to Bellah and told her
that he was going away to seek his fortune.

The girl was very unhappy as she listened to this, and felt sorry that
she had not tried to make the best of things. She implored Houarn not to
leave her, but he would listen to nothing.

'The birds,' he said, 'continue flying until they reach a field of corn,
and the bees do not stop unless they find the honey-giving flowers, and
why should a man have less sense than they? Like them, I shall seek till
I get what I want--that is, money to buy a cow and a pig to fatten. And
if you love me, Bellah, you won't attempt to hinder a plan which will
hasten our marriage.'

The girl saw it was useless to say more, so she answered sadly:

'Well, go then, since you must. But first I will divide with you all
that my parents left me,' and going to her room, she opened a small
chest, and took from it a bell, a knife, and a little stick.

'This bell,' she said, 'can be heard at any distance, however far, but
it only rings to warn us that our friends are in great danger. The knife
frees all it touches