ng vine "laid forth the purple grape," over a rich and sunny
plantation near at hand. The house was small, but neat, and well
furnished in the style of the province, and Monsieur and Madame Pierre
Lavalles lived very happily in plenty and content.

Here I leave them, and introduce the reader to Monsieur Antoine
Perron, notary in the neighboring village.

Let me linger over a notice of this individual. He was a good man, and
what is more curious an honest lawyer. Indeed, in spite of my happy
theory, I may say that such a good man, and such a good lawyer you
could seldom meet. All the village knew him; he mixed up in every
one's quarrels; not, as is usually the case, to make confusion worse
confounded by a double-tongued hypocrisy, but to produce conciliation;
he mingled in every one's affairs, not to pick up profit for himself,
but to prevent the villagers from running into losses and imprudent
speculations; he talked much, yet, it was not slander, but advice; he
thought more, yet it was not over mischief, but on schemes of good;
he was known to everybody, yet none that knew him respected him the
less on that account. He was a little, spare, merry-looking man, that
sought to appear grave when he was most inclined to merriment, and
if he considered himself a perfect genius in his plans for effecting
good, his vanity may be pardoned, because of the food it fed on.

M. Antoine Perron considered himself very ingenious, and if he had a
fault, it was his love of originality. He never liked to perform any
action in a common way, and never chuckled so gaily to himself, as
when he had achieved some charitable end by some extraordinary means.

It was seven months after the marriage of M. Pierre Lavalles, M.
Antoine Perron sat in his little parlor, and gazed with a glad eye
upon the cheerful fire, for the short winter was just terminating.
Leaning forward in his chair, he shaded his face with his hands, and
steadily perused the figures among the coals with a most pleasant
countenance. The room was small, neat, and comfortable, for the notary
prospered, in his humble way and seeking only comfort found it, and
was content.

Suddenly a violent knocking at the door aroused him from his reverie,
and he heard his old servant rushing to open it. In a moment, two
persons were ushered into the room, and the notary leaped to his
feet in astonishment at the extraordinary scene before him. Had a
thunderbolt cloven the roof, and passed thr