omes
to Paris for me, and it will be time for me to go."

"And how like you Paris?"

The young man smiled. "They told me ere I came that it was a very
lively place, and truly from the little that I have seen this morning, I
think that it is the liveliest place that I have seen."

"By my faith," said De Catinat, "you came down those stairs in a very
lively fashion, four of you together with a Dutch clock as an
_avant-courier_, and a whole train of wood-work at your heels. And you
have not seen the city yet?"

"Only as I journeyed through it yester-evening on my way to this house.
It is a wondrous place, but I was pent in for lack of air as I passed
through it. New York is a great city. There are said to be as many as
three thousand folk living there, and they say that they could send out
four hundred fighting-men, though I can scarce bring myself to believe
it. Yet from all parts of the city one may see something of God's
handiwork--the trees, the green of the grass, and the shine of the sun
upon the bay and the rivers. But here it is stone and wood, and wood
and stone, look where you will. In truth, you must be very hardy people
to keep your health in such a place."

"And to us it is you who seem so hardy, with your life in the forest and
on the river," cried the young girl. "And then the wonder that you can
find your path through those great wildernesses, where there is naught
to guide you."

"Well, there again! I marvel how you can find your way among these
thousands of houses. For myself, I trust that it will be a clear night
to-night."

"And why?"

"That I may see the stars."

"But you will find no change in them."

"That is it. If I can but see the stars, it will be easy for me to know
how to walk when I would find this house again. In the daytime I can
carry a knife and notch the door-posts as I pass, for it might be hard
to pick up one's trail again, with so many folk ever passing over it."

De Catinat burst out laughing again. "By my faith, you will find Paris
livelier than ever," said he, "if you blaze your way through on the
door-posts as you would on the trees of a forest. But perchance it
would be as well that you should have a guide at first; so, if you have
two horses ready in your stables, uncle, our friend and I might shortly
ride back to Versailles together, for I have a spell of guard again
before many hours are over. Then for some days he might bide with me
there, if he wi