ater of Chatel-Guyon! I am taking the widows to dine at Riom. A sad
town whose anagram constitutes it an objectionable neighbor to healing
springs: Riom, Mori.

"July 28th.--Hello, how's this! My two widows have been visited by
two gentlemen who came to look for them. Two widowers, without doubt.
They are leaving this evening. They have written to me on fancy
notepaper.

"July 29th.--Alone! Long excursion on foot to the extinct crater of
Nachere. Splendid view.

"July 30th.--Nothing. I am taking the treatment.

"July 31st.--Ditto. Ditto. This pretty country is full of polluted
streams. I am drawing the notice of the municipality to the abominable
sewer which poisons the road in front of the hotel. All the kitchen
refuse of the establishment is thrown into it. This is a good way to
breed cholera.

"August 1st.--Nothing. The treatment.

"August 2d.--Admirable walk to Chateauneuf, a place of sojourn for
rheumatic patients, where everybody is lame. Nothing can be queerer than
this population of cripples!

"August 3d.--Nothing. The treatment.

"August 4th.--Ditto. Ditto.

"August 5th.--Ditto. Ditto.

"August 6th.--Despair! I have just weighed myself. I have gained 310
grams. But then?

"August 7th.--Drove sixty-six kilometres in a carriage on the
mountain. I will not mention the name of the country through respect for
its women.

"This excursion had been pointed out to me as a beautiful one, and one
that was rarely made. After four hours on the road, I arrived at a rather
pretty village on the banks of a river in the midst of an admirable wood
of walnut trees. I had not yet seen a forest of walnut trees of such
dimensions in Auvergne. It constitutes, moreover, all the wealth of the
district, for it is planted on the village common. This common was
formerly only a hillside covered with brushwood. The authorities had
tried in vain to get it cultivated. There was scarcely enough pasture on
it to feed a few sheep.

"To-day it is a superb wood, thanks to the women, and it has a curious
name: it is called the Sins of the Cure.

"Now I must say that the women of the mountain districts have the
reputation of being light, lighter than in the plain. A bachelor who
meets them owes them at least a kiss; and if he does not take more he is
only a blockhead. If we consider this fairly, this way of looking at the
matter is the only one that is logical and reasonable. As woman, whether
she be of the town or the country, h