sister. And so one can imagine how I was
feted when I came, and of all none was so pleased as the old 'bon papa,'
my father's father. He was already very old: in our family we have been
prudent and not married boy and girl, as so many do now, and wish often
they could undo it again. Before he had married he had saved and laid by,
and for his sons there was something for each when they too started in
life. For my father there was the cottage and the little farm at
Stefanos."

"Where is Stefanos, Marie?" interrupted Ralph.

"Not so far, my little Monsieur; nine kilometers perhaps from Chalet."

"Nine kilometres; between five and six miles? We must have passed it when
we were driving," said Ralph.

"Without doubt," replied Marie. "Well, as I was saying, my father had the
paternal house at Stefanos for his when he married, and my uncles went to
the towns and did for themselves with their portions. And the bon papa
came, of course, to live with us. He was a kind old man--I remember him
well--and he must have had need of patience in a household of eight noisy
boys. They were the talk of the country, such fine men, and I, when I
came, was such a tiny little thing, you would hardly believe there could
be a child so small! And yet there was great joy. 'We have a girl at
last,' they all cried, and as for the bon papa he knew not what to do for
pleasure.

"I shall have a little grand-daughter to lead me about when my sight is
gone, I shall live the longer for this gift of thine,' he said to my
mother, whom he was very fond of. She was a good daughter-in-law to him.
She shall be called 'Marie, shall she not? The first girl, and so long
looked for. And, Eulalie,' he told my mother, 'this day, the day of her
birth, I shall plant an apple-tree, a seedling of the best stock, a
'reinette,' in the best corner of the orchard, and it shall be her tree.
They shall grow together, and to both we will give the best care, and
as the one prospers the other will prosper, and when trouble comes to the
one, the other will droop and fade till again the storms have passed
away. The tree shall be called 'le pommier de la petite.'"

"My mother smiled; she thought it the fancy of the old man, but she was
pleased he should so occupy himself with the little baby girl. And he did
as he said: that very day he planted the apple-tree in the sunniest
corner of the orchard. And he gave it the best of his care; it was
watered in dry weather, the earth abou