as easily persuaded, though her mother wept at the
idea of the cold of winter, and the damps of spring, and the ague of
autumn, that she knew caused terrible suffering to the poor, who lived
in the woods and caves. The good woman tried to console herself with
taking great care of a pair of fowls, which were to be her wedding
present to her daughter.

So here was Charles, this day at work in the wood, with Marie's brothers
to help him. One well-wisher had lent him an axe, and another a mallet;
and he cut and drove stakes, while Robin and Marc collected twigs from
the brushwood, moss from the roots of trees, and rushes from the margin
of the ponds. They had chosen such a spot as they thought Marie would
like; for she would not be persuaded to come and choose for herself.
She only dropped that the hut ought to stand above the fogs of the
ponds; and she left the rest to Charles. Charles had found a little
green recess among the trees, on a slightly rising ground; Robin and
Marc declared for it at once, when he showed them how he could cut away
the brushwood, so as to leave a pathway to the pond, and a pretty view
of it when it gleamed in the sun, as it did this afternoon. The boys
clapped their hands: and Charles, feeling a glow at his heart, as if
Marie and he were going to be happy at last, began to sing, as he drove
his corner-stakes.

"You will have a pleasant life of it here in the woods," said Robin,
bringing as large a load of rushes as his two arms would hold. "I
should like to live here, as you are going to do. You have only to look
into that pond for three minutes to see more fine fish than you will
want for a month after."

"The fish will do us no good," said Charles. "If a fishbone is found
within a furlong of where I live (here where nobody else lives), off I
am marched straight to jail. And the Count's bailiff has surprisingly
sharp eyes."

"I would bury the fishbones in the night-time," observed Marc, coming up
with a faggot of twigs; "but I would have the fish, if I wanted them,
for all the bailiff."

"If you go to yonder jail," said Charles, "and ask the folk how they
came there, some of them will tell you it was trying to get fish, when
they were hungry, for all the bailiff. Or, if not fish, something else
from the woods and warrens--a rabbit, perhaps, or a couple of doves."

"I hope the bailiff won't put me into jail for my rabbits," said Marc,
"for I have not eaten them. I have a pretty