oked to the north. The house, placed on a little rise in the
stoniest angle of a vineyard, was certainly healthful. It was reached by
three steps, carefully made with stakes and planks filled in with broken
stone and gravel, so that the water ran off rapidly; and as the rain
seldom comes from the northward in Burgundy, no dampness could rot the
foundations, slight as they were. Below the steps and along the path ran
a rustic paling, hidden beneath a hedge of hawthorn and sweet-brier.
An arbor, with a few clumsy tables and wooden benches, filled the space
between the cottage and the road, and invited the passers-by to rest
themselves. At the upper end of the bank by the house roses grew, and
wall-flowers, violets, and other flowers that cost nothing. Jessamine
and honey-suckle had fastened their tendrils on the roof, mossy already,
though the building was far from old.

To the right of the house, the owner had built a stable for two cows. In
front of this erection of old boards, a sunken piece of ground served as
a yard where, in a corner, was a huge manure-heap. On the other side of
the house and the arbor stood a thatched shed, supported on trunks of
trees, under which the various outdoor properties of the peasantry were
put away,--the utensils of the vine-dressers, their empty casks, logs
of wood piled about a mound which contained the oven, the mouth of
which opened, as was usual in the houses of the peasantry, under the
mantle-piece of the chimney in the kitchen.

About an acre of land adjoined the house, inclosed by an evergreen hedge
and planted with grape-vines; tended as peasants tend them,--that is to
say, well-manured, and dug round, and layered so that they usually set
their fruit before the vines of the large proprietors in a circuit of
ten miles round. A few trees, almond, plum, and apricot, showed their
slim heads here and there in this enclosure. Between the rows of vines
potatoes and beans were planted. In addition to all this, on the side
towards the village and beyond the yard was a bit of damp low ground,
favorable for the growth of cabbages and onions (favorite vegetables of
the working-classes), which was closed by a wooden gate, through which
the cows were driven, trampling the path into mud and covering it with
dung.

The house, which had two rooms on the ground-floor, opened upon the
vineyard. On this side an outer stairway, roofed with thatch and resting
against the wall of the house, led up t