een
on the wrong path for hours, and in thinking to take the road to
Sersberg he had continued to turn his back upon it. It was too late to
make good such an error; so he was forced to accept the shelter offered
by his new companion, whose farm was fortunately within gunshot.

He accordingly regulated his pace to the carter's and attempted to enter
into conversation with him; but Moser was not a talkative man and was
apparently a complete stranger to the young man's usual sensations.
When, on issuing from the forest, Arnold pointed to the magnificent
horizon purpled by the last rays of the setting sun, the farmer
contented himself with a grimace.

"Bad weather for to-morrow," he muttered, drawing his cloak about his
shoulders.

"One ought to be able to see the entire valley from here," went on
Arnold, striving to pierce the gloom that already clothed the foot of
the mountain.

"Yes, yes," said Moser, shaking his head; "the ridge is high enough for
that. There's an invention for you that isn't good for much."

"What invention?"

"The mountains."

"You would rather have everything level?"

"What a question!" cried the farmer, laughing. "You might as well ask me
if I would not rather ruin my horses."

"True," said Arnold in a tone of somewhat contemptuous irony. "I had
forgotten the horses! It is clear that God should have thought
principally of them when he created the world."

"I don't know as to God," answered Moser quietly, "but the engineers
certainly made a mistake in forgetting them when they made the roads.
The horse is the laborer's best friend, monsieur--without disrespect to
the oxen, which have their value too."

Arnold looked at the peasant. "So you see in your surroundings only the
advantages you can derive from them?" he asked gravely. "The forest, the
mountains, the clouds, all say nothing to you? You have never paused
before the setting sun or at the sight of the woods lighted by the
stars?"

"I?" cried the farmer. "Do you take me for a maker of almanacs? What
should I get out of your starlight and the setting sun? The main thing
is to earn enough for three meals a day and to keep one's stomach warm.
Would monsieur like a drink of cognac? It comes from the other side of
the Rhine."

He held out a little wicker-covered bottle to Arnold, who refused by a
gesture. The positive coarseness of the peasant had rekindled his regret
and his contempt. Were they really men such as he was, these
unf