eur Brunet coming bothering about here?" asked Tonsard.

"Hey, by the powers, you folks!" said Vermichel, "you've brought him in
for the last three years more than you are worth. Ha! that master at Les
Aigues, he has his eye upon you; he'll punch you in the ribs; he's after
you, the Shopman! Brunet says, if there were three such landlords in the
valley his fortune would be made."

"What new harm are they going to do to the poor?" asked Marie.

"A pretty wise thing for themselves," replied Vermichel. "Faith! you'll
have to give in, in the end. How can you help it? They've got the
power. For the last two years haven't they had three foresters and a
horse-patrol, all as active as ants, and a field-keeper who is a terror?
Besides, the gendarmerie is ready to do their dirty work at any time.
They'll crush you--"

"Bah!" said Tonsard, "we are too flat. That which can't be crushed isn't
the trees, it's ground."

"Don't you trust to that," said Fourchon to his son-in-law; "you own
property."

"Those rich folks must love you," continued Vermichel, "for they think
of nothing else from morning till night! They are saying to themselves
now like this: 'Their cattle eat up our pastures; we'll seize their
cattle; they can't eat grass themselves.' You've all been condemned, the
warrants are out, and they have told our ape to take your cows. We are
to begin this morning at Conches by seizing old mother Bonnebault's cow
and Godin's cow and Mitant's cow."

The moment the name of Bonnebault was mentioned, Marie, who was in love
with the old woman's grandson, sprang into the vineyard with a nod to
her father and mother. She slipped like an eel through a break in the
hedge, and was off on the way to Conches with the speed of a hunted
hare.

"They'll do so much," remarked Tonsard, tranquilly, "that they'll get
their bones broken; and that will be a pity, for their mothers can't
make them any new ones."

"Well, perhaps so," said old Fourchon, "but see here, Vermichel, I can't
go with you for an hour or more, for I have important business at the
chateau."

"More important than serving three warrants at five sous each? 'You
shouldn't spit into the vintage,' as Father Noah says."

"I tell you, Vermichel, that my business requires me to go to the
chateau des Aigues," repeated the old man, with an air of laughable
self-importance.

"And anyhow," said Mam Tonsard, "my father had better keep out of the
way. Do you really mean to find