ual fair and of a cattle-market. In
ordinary times, I daresay the approaching traveller would have been
greeted by the silvery voice of the village church-bell, and the
peasants working in the fields would have doffed their caps _a la_ Jean
Francois Millet as the Angelus called them to prayer. But we only heard
the discordant voices of man and beast, as they rose from the market and
the fair, and the devout peasants had left the fields to bow their heads
reverently somewhere nearer the centre of festivities.

We found but poor accommodation at the crowded inn, but had learnt by
this time not to be particular, and to put up with a bundle of straw for
a mattress, and the back of a chair turned upside down for a pillow.

I had left Claude making some studies of oxen that might perhaps some
day, under his brush, figure as a background to a sacred subject, and I
had sauntered on to the fair. There, having pulled out my sketch-book, I
soon became a centre of attraction. An artist was evidently a strange
figure in this primitive place, and so a little crowd collected to watch
one of the species use his tools. It was on this occasion that I had an
opportunity of realising a truth which I have subsequently so often
found confirmed--viz., that there are occasions when I am wanted, and
others when I am not wanted. In that particular place I was not wanted.
So the boss of a theatrical show, close to whose booth I had taken my
stand, told me. He put it in the most courteous language. With me it did
not mean business, he could see that. With him it did, and his business
was suffering from the unwonted attraction I offered. I at once closed
my sketch-book, and he improved the occasion by announcing his
performance in stentorian voice to my crowd. It was something about the
Assassin's Coffin and the Haunted Wreck--grand drama in so many acts and
so many more tableaux, performed by his troupe in all the capitals of
Europe.

"Entrez, messieurs! on va commencer. Deux sous l'entree!" and he was up
on his platform, prodding a monkey with a long thin stick, and banging
on a drum with a short thick one.

I was moving on, when a lady, also gifted with an eye to business,
addressed me, this time to tell me that I _was_ wanted.

"You will be here this evening, will you not?" she said. "Would you mind
coming and doing some of your drawing in front of my booth; you would
attract the people, and once they are there, leave me alone for the
rest