gainst the starry sky. I should have remained
a long time undecided as to what it was, if my master had not spoken to
it.

"Can you tell me if we are far from the village?" he asked, politely.

He was a man, then, if one could speak to him! What was my astonishment
when the animal said that there were no houses near, but an inn to which
he would take us. If he could talk, why did he have paws?

If I had had the courage, I would have gone up to him to see how his
paws were made, but I was still somewhat afraid, so I picked up my bag
and followed my master, without saying a word.

"You see now what scared you so," Vitalis said, laughing, as we went on
our way.

"But I don't know what it is, yet. Are there giants in this part of the
country, then?"

"Yes, when men are standing on stilts."

Then he explained to me that the Landais, so as to get over the marshy
plains, and not sink in up to their hips, stride about the country on
stilts.

What a goose I had been!

CHAPTER IX

ARRESTED

I had a pleasant remembrance of Pau, the beautiful winter resort where
the wind scarcely ever blew. We stayed there the whole winter, for we
were taking in quite a lot of money. Our audience consisted mostly of
children, and they were never tired if we did give the same performance
over and over again. They were children of the rich, mostly English and
American. Fat little boys, with ruddy skins, and pretty little girls
with soft eyes almost as beautiful as Dulcie's. It was from these
children that I got a taste for candy, for they always came with their
pockets stuffed with sweets which they divided between Pretty-Heart, the
dogs, and myself. But when the spring approached our audience grew
smaller. One by one, two by two, the little ones came to shake hands
with Pretty-Heart, Capi, and Dulcie. They had come to say good-by. They
were going away. So we also had to leave the beautiful winter resort and
take up our wandering life again.

For a long time, I do not know how many days or weeks, we went through
valleys, over hills, leaving behind the bluish top of the Pyrenees,
which now looked like a mass of clouds.

Then one night we came to a great town with ugly red brick houses and
with streets paved with little pointed stones, hard to the feet of
travelers who had walked a dozen miles a day. My master told me that we
were in Toulouse and that we should stay there for a long time. As
usual, the first thing we did was t