od humoredly traditional. The trial and despair of Pere Galibert, and
the disapproved of Chamilly's father, he ran away to Trois-Rivieres as
soon as he knew enough to do so; thence to Montreal, and Joliette; and a
Fur Post near Saipasou (or, "Nobody-knows-Where," for Zotique asserts
the region has that name); then was a veracious steamboat guide for
tourists to the Gulf; edited a comic weekly at Quebec, "illustrated" it,
itself cheerfully and truly confessed, "with execrable wood-engravings;"
as Papal Zouave, he embarked for Rome to gallant in voluminous trousers
on four sous a day; fought wildly, for the fun of it, at the Pia Gate
against Victor Emmanuel's red-shirted patriots,--and came back to
Dormilliere disgusted. The Registrarship of the county being vacant, a
pious government appointed him to the position, upon recommendation by
the "high Clergy," as a martyr for the good cause; and on a similar
sacred ground he obtained the passage of a private bill through the
Legislature, admitting him to the honorable profession of notary without
the trouble of studying.

So it came to pass that our friend was installed in the Registry Office
end of the long cottage known as the Circuit Court House, and made use
of the Court Hall itself for his Sunday receptions to the people.

The people themselves were worth a brief catalogue.

Jacques Poulin, the horse trader, stood against a window, with his big
straw hat on. His trotting sulky was outside. Gagnant, the established
merchant, with contented reticence of well-to-do-ness, was remarking of
some enterprise, "It won't pay its tobacco." Toutsignant, his insecure
and overdaring young rival; who was bound to cut trade, and let
calculation take care of itself, sat on the opposite side of the room,
and, bantering with him, the shrewd _habitants_, Bourdon and Desrochers,
who were to profit by his theory of an advance in rye. The young
doctor, Boucher from Boucherville, leaned near, superior in broad-cloth
frock coat, red tie, and silk hat. Along a bench, squeezed a jolly
half-dozen "_garcons,"_ and a special mist of tobacco smoke hung
imminent over their heads. About the floor, the windows, the corners of
the room, the bar of the court, sat, lounged, smoked, and stood, in
friendly groups, a host of neighbors, amiably listening, more or less,
to Zotique's harangues and conversations. It cannot be said, however,
that they abated much of their own little discussions. Every now and
the