tures, now that the sun is gone. Peter, we must shift our quarters
to-night, for I have been to every cabaret in the village, and I cannot
go there any more without suspicion, although I am a gendarme."

We remained there till the evening, and then set off, still returning
toward Givet. About an hour before daylight we arrived at a copse of
trees close to the road-side, and surrounded by a ditch, not above a
quarter of a mile from a village "It appears to me," said O'Brien, "that
this will do; I will now put you there, and then go boldly to the
village and see what I can get, for here we must stay at least a week."

We walked to the copse, and the ditch being rather too wide for me to
leap, O'Brien laid the four stilts together, so as to form a bridge,
over which I contrived to walk. Tossing to me all the bundles, and
desiring me to leave the stilts as a bridge for him on his return, he
set off to the village with his musket on his shoulder. He was away two
hours, when he returned with a large supply of provisions, the best we
had ever had.

"There," said he, "we have enough for a good week; and look here, Peter,
this is better than all." And he showed me two large horse-rugs.

"Excellent," replied I; "now we shall be comfortable."

"I paid honestly for all but these rugs," observed O'Brien; "I was
afraid to buy them, so I stole them. However, we'll leave them here for
those they belong to--it's only borrowing, after all."

We now prepared a very comfortable shelter with branches, which we wove
together, and laying the leaves in the sun to dry, soon obtained a soft
bed to put our horse-rug on, while we covered ourselves up with the
other. Our bridge of stilts we had removed, so that we felt ourselves
quite secure from surprise. At dark, to bed we went, and slept soundly;
I never felt more refreshed during our wanderings. At daylight O'Brien
got up.

"Now, Peter, a little practice before breakfast."

"What practice do you mean?"

"Mean why, on the stilts. I expect in a week that you'll be able to
dance a gavotte at least; for mind me, Peter, you travel out of France
upon these stilts, depend upon it."

O'Brien then took the stilts belonging to the man, giving me those of
the woman. We strapped them to our thighs, and by fixing our backs to a
tree, contrived to get upright upon them; but at the first attempt to
walk, O'Brien fell to the right, and I fell to the left. O'Brien fell
against a tree, but