fend, Mother
Guillette's hearth. The great spit was twisted like a screw beneath
the strong fists which fought for it A pistol-shot set fire to a small
quantity of hemp arranged in sheaves and laid on a wicker shelf near
the ceiling. This incident created a diversion, and while some of the
company crowded about to extinguish the sparks, the grave-digger, who
had climbed unbeknown into the garret, came down the chimney and seized
the spit, at the very moment when the ox-driver, who was defending it
near the hearth, raised it above his head to prevent it from being torn
away. Some time before the attack, the women had taken the precaution
to put out the fire lest in the struggle somebody should fall in and get
burned. The jocular grave-digger, in league with the ox-driver, grasped
the trophy and tossed it easily across the andirons. It was done! Nobody
might interfere. The grave-digger sprang to the middle of the room
and lighted a few wisps of straw, which he placed about the spit under
pretense of cooking the roast, for the goose was in pieces and the floor
was strewn with its scattered fragments.

Then there was a great deal of laughter and much boastful dispute.
Everybody showed the marks of the blows he had received, and as it
was often a friend's hand that had struck them, there was no word of
complaint nor of quarreling. The hemp-dresser, half flattened out, kept
rubbing the small of his back and saying that, although it made small
difference to him, he protested against the ruse of his friend, the
grave-digger, and that if he had not been half dead, the hearth had
never been captured so easily. The women swept the floor and order
was restored. The table was covered with jugs of new wine. When the
contestants had drunk together and taken breath, the bridegroom was led
to the middle of the chamber, and, armed with a wand, he was obliged to
submit to a fresh trial.

During the struggle, the bride and three of her companions had been
hidden by her mother, godmother, and aunts, who had made the four girls
sit down in a remote corner of the room while they covered them with
a large white cloth. Three friends of Marie's height, with caps of a
uniform size, were chosen, so that when they were enveloped from head to
toe by the cloth it was impossible to tell them apart.

The bridegroom might not touch them, except with the tip of his staff,
and then merely to designate which he thought to be his wife. They
allowed him t