u have a kind heart, Marie, and it does me good to weep with you. But
put your feet near the fire; your skirts are all damp, too, poor little
girl! Let me take your place by the child, and do you warm yourself
better than that."

"I'm warm enough," said Marie; "if you want to sit down, take a corner
of the cloak; I am very comfortable."

"To tell the truth, we're not badly off here," said Germain, seating
himself close beside her. "The only thing that troubles me now is
hunger. It must be nine o'clock, and I had such hard work walking in
those wretched roads, that I feel all fagged out. Aren't you hungry,
too, Marie?"

"I? Not at all. I'm not used to four meals a day as you are, and I have
been to bed without supper so many times, that once more doesn't worry
me much."

"Well, a wife like you is a great convenience; she doesn't cost much,"
said Germain, with a smile.

"I am not a wife," said Marie artlessly, not perceiving the turn the
ploughman's ideas were taking. "Are you dreaming?"

"Yes, I believe I am dreaming," was Germain's reply; "perhaps it's
hunger that makes my mind wander."

"What a gourmand you must be!" she rejoined, brightening up a little in
her turn; "well, if you can't live five or six hours without eating,
haven't you some game in your bag, and fire to cook it with?"

"The devil! that's a good idea! but what about the gift to my future
father-in-law?"

"You have six partridges and a hare! I don't believe you need all that
to satisfy your hunger, do you?"

"But if we undertake to cook it here, without a spit or fire-dogs, we
shall burn it to a cinder!"

"Oh! no," said little Marie; "I'll agree to cook it for you in the ashes
so it won't smell of smoke. Didn't you ever catch larks in the fields,
and haven't you cooked them between two stones? Ah! true! I forget that
you never tended sheep! Come, pluck that partridge! Not so hard! you'll
pull off the skin!"

"You might pluck another one to show me how!"

"What! do you propose to eat two? What an ogre! Well, there they are all
plucked, and now I'll cook them."

"You would make a perfect _cantiniere_, little Marie; but unluckily you
haven't any canteen, and I shall be reduced to drink water from this
pool."

"You'd like some wine, wouldn't you? Perhaps you need coffee, too? you
imagine you're at the fair under the arbor! Call the landlord: liquor
for the cunning ploughman of Belair!"

"Ah! bad girl, you're laughing at me, are you? Yo