ness as we passed the well! A little in our rear
followed the house-servants, even to the least; and in the Mazet already
were gathered, with the family, the few work-people of the estate who
had not gone to their own homes. For the Great Supper is a patriarchal
feast, to which in Christian fellowship come the master and the master's
family and all of their servitors and dependants on equal terms.

A broad stream of light came out through the open doorway of the
farm-house, and with it a great clatter and buzz of talk--that increased
tenfold as we entered, and a cry of "_Boni festo!_" came from the whole
company at once. As for the Vidame, he so radiated cordiality that he
seemed to be the veritable Spirit of Christmas (incarnate at the age of
sixty, and at that period of the nineteenth century when stocks and
frilled shirts were worn), and his joyful old legs were near to dancing
as he went among the company with warm-hearted greetings and
outstretched hands.

All told, we numbered above forty; but the great living-room of the
Mazet, notwithstanding the space taken by the supper-table ranged down
the middle of it, easily could have held another score. Save in its
size, and in the completeness of its appointments, this room was
thoroughly typical of the main apartment found in farm-houses throughout
Provence. The floor was laid with stone slabs and the ceiling was
supported upon very large smoke-browned beams--from which hung hams, and
strings of sausages, and ropes of garlic, and a half-dozen bladders
filled with lard. More than a third of the rear wall was taken up by the
huge fire-place, that measured ten feet across and seven feet from the
stone mantle-shelf to the floor. In its centre, with room on each side
in the chimney-corners for a chair (a space often occupied by large
lockers for flour and salt), was the fire-bed--crossed by a pair of tall
andirons, which flared out at the top into little iron baskets (often
used, with a filling of live coals, as plate-warmers) and which were
furnished with hooks at different heights to support the
roasting-spits. Hanging from the mantle-shelf was a short curtain to
hold the smoke in check; and on the shelf were various utilitarian
ornaments: a row of six covered jars, of old faience, ranging in holding
capacity from a gill to three pints, each lettered with the name of its
contents--saffron, pepper, tea, salt, sugar, flour; and with these some
burnished copper vessels, and