the morning to go and fetch his betrothed and
bring her to the Mayor's office; but, it was too early, he seated himself
before the kitchen-table, and waited for the members of the family and
the friends who were to accompany him.

For the last eight days, it had been snowing, and the brown earth, the
earth already fertilized by the autumn savings had become livid, sleeping
under a great sheet of ice.

It was cold in the thatched houses adorned with white caps; and the round
apples in the trees of the enclosures seemed to be flowering, powdered as
they had been in the pleasant month of their blossoming.

This day, the big northern clouds, the gray clouds laden with glittering
rain had disappeared, and the blue sky showed itself above the white
earth on which the rising sun cast silvery reflections.

Cesaire looked straight before him through the window, thinking of
nothing happy.

The door opened, two women entered, peasant women in their Sunday
clothes, the aunt and the cousin of the bridegroom, then three men, his
cousins, then a woman who was a neighbor. They sat down on chairs, and
they remained motionless and silent, the women on one side of the
kitchen, the men on the other suddenly seized with timidity, with that
embarrassed sadness which takes possession of people assembled for a
ceremony. One of the cousins soon asked:

"It is not the hour--is it?"

Cesaire replied:

"I am much afraid it is."

"Come on! Let us start," said another.

Those rose up. Then Cesaire, whom a feeling of uneasiness had taken
possession of, climbed up the ladder of the loft to see whether his
father was ready. The old man, always as a rule an early riser, had not
yet made his appearance. His son found him on his bed of straw, wrapped
up in his blanket, with his eyes open, and a malicious look in them.

He bawled out into his ear: "Come, daddy, get up. 'Tis the time for the
wedding."

The deaf man murmured in a doleful tone:

"I can't, I have a sort of cold over me that freezes my back. I can't
stir."

The young man, dumbfounded, stared at him, guessing that this was a
dodge.

"Come, daddy, we must force you to go."

"Look here! I'll help you."

And he stooped towards the old man, pulled off his blanket, caught him by
the arm and lifted him up. But the old Amable began to whine:

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! What suffering! Ooh! I can't. My back is stiffened up.
'Tis the wind that must have rushed in through this cursed roof."