of
the solemn feast of Palm Sunday, and this day next week will be the eve
of Easter Sunday, the day of Our Lord's Resurrection."

When these good people heard this news they began to murmur, and were so
astonished they did not know what to do.

"Silence!" said the cure, "I will soon satisfy you, and will tell
you the true reasons why you have only eight days of Lent in which to
perform your penitences this year, and marvel not at what I am about
to tell you, as to why Lent came so late. I suppose there is not one
amongst you who does not know and remember that the frosts were very
long and sharp this year--much worse than ever they were--and that for
many weeks it was dangerous to ride, on account of the frost and the
snow, which lasted a long time."

"Every one here knows that is as true as the Gospel, therefore be not
astonished that Lent has been so long coming, but rather wonder that it
was able to come at all, seeing how long the road is from here to his
house. I would ask, and even beg of you, to excuse him, for I dined with
him to day" (and he named the place--that is to say the town to which he
had been).

"However," he added, "manage to come and confess this week, and appear
to morrow in the procession, as is customary. And have patience this
time; the coming year will be milder, please God, and then Lent will
come quicker, as it usually does."

Thus did the cure find means to excuse his simple ignorance. Then he
pronounced the benediction saying,

"Pray to God for me, and I will pray to God for you."

After that he came down out of the pulpit, and went to his house to
prepare the boughs and palms which were to be used in the procession the
next day.

And that is all.

*****

[Illustration: 90.jpg A good Remedy.]

STORY THE NINETIETH -- A GOOD REMEDY. [90]

By Monseigneur De Beaumont.

_Of a good merchant of Brabant whose wife was very ill, and he supposing
that she was about to die, after many remonstrances and exhortations for
the salvation of her soul, asked her pardon, and she pardoned him all
his misdeeds, excepting that he had not worked her as much as he ought
to have done--as will appear more plainly in the said story._

To increase the number of stories that I promised to tell, I will relate
a circumstance that occurred lately.

In the fair land of Brabant--the place in the world where adventures
most often happen--there lived a good and honest merchant, whose
wife wa