concocted in the
stables to humble "the nobility" with a grand display of humour. Jean
was to be crowned as marquis with a bridle and blinders:

Pierre was to be anointed as count, with a dipperful of harness-oil;
after that the fun would be impromptu.

The impromptu part of the programme began earlier than it was
advertised. Some whisper of the plan had leaked through the chinks
of the wall between the shanty and the stable. When the crowd came
shambling into the cabin, snickering and nudging one another, Jean and
Pierre were standing by the stove at the upper end of the long table.

"Down with the canaille!" shouted Jean.

"Clean out the gang!" responded Pierre.

Brandishing long-handled frying-pans, they charged down the sides of the
table. The mob wavered, turned, and were lost! Helter-skelter they
fled, tumbling over one another in their haste to escape. The lamp
was smashed. The benches were upset. In the smoky hall a furious din
arose,--as if Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale were once more hewing their
way through the castle of Carteloise. Fear fell upon the multitude, and
they cried aloud grievously in their dismay. The blows of the weapons
echoed mightily in the darkness, and the two knights laid about them
grimly and with great joy. The door was too narrow for the flight. Some
of the men crept under the lowest berths; others hid beneath the table.
Two, endeavouring to escape by the windows, stuck fast, exposing a
broad and undefended mark to the pursuers. Here the last strokes of the
conflict were delivered.

"One for the marquis!" cried Jean, bringing down his weapon with a
sounding whack.

"Two for the count!" cried Pierre, making his pan crack like the blow of
a beaver's tail when he dives.

Then they went out into the snowy night, and sat down together on the
sill of the stable-door, and laughed until the tears ran down their
cheeks.

"My faith!" said Jean. "That was like the ancient time. It is from the
good wood that strong paddles are made,--eh, cousin?" And after that
there was a friendship between the two men that could not have been cut
with the sharpest axe in Quebec.

III

A HAPPY ENDING WHICH IS ALSO A BEGINNING

The plan of going back to St. Gedeon, to wait for the return of the
lawyer, was not carried out. Several of the little gods that use their
own indiscretion in arranging the pieces on the puzzle-map of life,
interfered with it.

The first to meddle was that highly irre