all find the butter and the
eggs and the flour and everything that is necessary."

"Well, well! I am going to obey you," said she, as she went down to
the cellar.

Catherine took off her pretty shawl and hung it on the back of my
chair, then she put some wood on the fire and some butter in a saucepan
and looked into the kettles to see that everything was in order. Aunt
came in at that moment with a bottle of white wine.

"You will first refresh yourselves a little before dinner, and while
Catherine looks after the kitchen I will go and put on my sacque and
give my hair a touch with the comb, for certainly it needs it, and
you--go into the orchard;--here, Joseph, take these glasses and the
bottle and go and sit in the bee-house, the weather is fine, in an hour
all will be in order and I will come and drink with you."

Father Goulden and I went out through the tall grass and the yellow
dandelions which came up to our knees. It was very warm and the air
was full of soft murmurs. We sat down in the shade and looked at the
glorious sunshine.

Mr. Goulden took off his peruke in order to be more at his ease and
hung it up behind him, and I opened the bottle and we drank some of the
good white wine.

"Well! all goes on even though man does commit follies; the Lord God
watches over all his works. Look at the grain, Joseph, how it grows!
What a harvest there will be in three or four months. And those
turnips and cabbages, and the shrubs, and the bees, how busy everything
is, how they live and grow! what a pity it is that men do not follow so
good an example! what a pity that some must labor to support the others
in idleness. What a pity that there must be always idlers of every
kind, who treat us like Jacobins because we wish for order and peace
and justice!"

There was nothing he liked so much to see as industry, not only that of
man but even of the smallest insect that runs about in the grass, as in
an endless forest, which builds and pairs and covers its eggs, heaps
them up in its places of deposit, exposes them to the sunshine,
protects them from the chills of night, and defends them from its
enemies; in short, all that great universe of life where everything
sings, everything is in its place; from the lark which fills the air
with his joyous music to the ant which goes and comes and runs and mows
and saws and pulls and is master of all trades.

This was what pleased Mr. Goulden, but he never spoke of it exce