ss for me to groom! See what a
coat! Good Lilith!" Then, as Lilith munched the sugar--"Who are you,
little boy? I never saw you before. Explain yourself, kindly, little
boy."

"My name is Yann," said I; "Yann Riel. I am from Roscoff, and--O how
tired, madame!"

"He is Breton! He speaks the Breton!" She clapped her hands, drew me
down from my seat, and kissed me on both cheeks.

"Yann, you shall sleep now--this instant. Tell me only how you came--a
word or two--that I may repeat to the farmer."

So I did my best, and told her about the run, and the dragoons on the
beach, and how I came on Lilith's back.

"Wonderful, wonderful! But how came she to allow you?"

"That I know not, madame. But when I spoke to her she was quiet at
once."

"In the Breton--you spoke in the Breton? Yes, yes, that explains--_I_
taught her. Dear Lilith!" She patted the mare's neck, and broke off to
clap her hands again and interpret the tale to the farmer and his wife;
and the farmer growled a bit, and then they all began to laugh.

"He says you are a 'rumgo,' and you had better be put to bed. But the
packet on your back--your night-shirt, I suppose? You have managed it
all so complete, Yann!" And she laughed merrily.

"It holds fifteen little wooden dolls," said I, "jointed at the knees
and elbows; and they cost two sols apiece."

"My little dolls--you clever boy! O you clever little boy!" She kissed
me twice again. "Come, and you shall sleep, and then, when you wake,
you shall see."

She took me by the hand and hurried me into the house, and upstairs to a
great bedroom with a large oaken four-post bed in it, and a narrow
wooden bed beside, and a fire lit, and an arm-chair by the hearth.
The four-post bed had curtains of green damask, all closely pinned
around it, and a green valance. But she went to the little bed, which
was hung with pink dimity, and pulled the white sheets out of it and
replaced them with others from a great wardrobe sunk in the wall.
And while I sat in the chair by the fire, munching a crust of bread and
feeling half inclined to cry and more than half inclined to sleep, she
left me, and returned with a can of hot water and a vast night-shirt of
the farmer's, and bade me good-night.

"Be quick and undress, little one." She turned at the door. "The tubs
are all in hiding by this time. Good-night, Yann."

I believe I slept as soon as my head touched the sweet-smelling pillow;
and I must hav