re,--the dandies more especially, who shod in
varnished leather, always over-dressed, musked, and starched, attract,
so they think, too much the attention of the young girls. Fathers,
mothers, and, above all, lovers, are at once on the look out. They
mistrust these fine gentlemen, whom they always designate by the
appellation of "gilded serpents."

My friends from other departments often remarked the looks of aversion
with which the natives sometimes met them; and not comprehending the
reason, have asked me for an explanation. Do you observe, I said, that
little white house, half-hidden yonder in the poplars--there, on the
banks of the Cure? That house, a few years ago, was the abiding-place of
a happy and honest family,--a father, and his three daughters.

The father, who in his youth was in very good circumstances, was ruined
by bad harvests, an epidemic disease in his cattle, and by other
disasters that cause the downfall of many farmers. Nevertheless, and
though his losses were great, he lived happy and even contented with his
children, who, all three of irreproachable conduct and character, and
excellent needlewomen, did their utmost to ameliorate his position. They
made dresses for the ladies in the town, worked by the day, and
sometimes, when they found their earnings during the summer months fall
short of what they thought sufficient to meet the expenses of the coming
winter, they hired themselves to some proprietor during the period of
the _vendange_.

The youngest of the three,--Herminie, she might be about sixteen,--was a
charming girl, a true child of Nature, fresh as a wild flower, awaking
and rising every day of the year from her peaceful happy couch with the
birds of heaven, always smiling and singing. Herminie was the joy, the
favourite of the old man,--she was the linnet, the darling, and the life
of the house. One autumnal day, (the period at which, as I have before
remarked, our province abounds with strangers,) her figure attracted the
attention of one of those cursed beings, with a false heart and lying
lips, that the great cities send into our rural districts, carrying with
them desolation and mourning. I know not in what manner it occurred,
what falsehoods, what arts he used, or what traps he laid,--but he
succeeded too well in his base purpose. The poor girl was deceived.
Easily convinced,--she was too pure, too young to doubt; and her mother,
who would have been there to watch over her, was al