y knew all the nooks and corners, public highways and the byways
of the village, and I was well acquainted with many of the kind country
people who lived about us.

The women, peasant women with goitres, who passed my uncle's house on
their way to and from the surrounding fields and vineyards, carried
baskets of fruit on their heads, and they always paused to offer me
luscious grapes and delicious peaches. I was delighted with the southern
dialect, and with the songs of the mountaineers; and, best of all,
my unfamiliar surroundings ever reminded me that I was in a strange
country.

And now when I see any of the little things that I brought from there
for my museum, or when I look over the brief letters that I wrote to my
mother every day, I suddenly feel the warm sunshine, I experience again
the strange newness, I smell the fragrance of ripe southern fruits,
and I feel the keen freshness of the mountain air; and at such times I
realize that in spite of the long descriptions in these dead pages they
inadequately express all I felt.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

The little St. Hermangardes, of whom every one spoke so often, arrived
about the middle of September. Their castle was situated in the north
upon the bank of the Carreze, but they came every year to pass the
autumn in their very old and dilapidated mansion near my uncle's house.

Two boys, both a little older than I, came this time, and contrary to
my expectation I took a fancy to them immediately. As they were in the
habit of spending a part of each year at their country place they had
guns and powder and often went hunting. Thus they brought an entirely
new element into our games. Their estate of Bories became one of the
centres of our operations. Everything there was at our disposal,
the servants and all the animals in the stables. One of our favorite
amusements was the construction of enormous balloons, nine or ten feet
high, and these we inflated by burning under them sheaves of hay; we
then watched them rise and sail away and away, until they were lost to
our sight high above the distant fields and woods.

The little St. Hermangardes were unlike other children; they had had
all their instruction from a tutor, and their ideas were different from
those one imbibes at boarding schools. When there was any disagreement
between us in regard to our games they always courteously gave in to me,
and therefore my contact with them did not help me to meet the painfu