r off, very far
off,--I shouldn't tire of that; provided I was at the fireside with my
man and my children, or even quite alone, if my man was going his
rounds. Ah, I am not afraid of a gun! If I had my children to defend, I
could do that,--the wolf would guard her cubs!"

"Oh, I can well believe you! You are very brave--you are; but I am a
coward. I prefer spring to the winter, when the leaves are green, when
the pretty wild flowers bloom, and they smell so sweet, so sweet that
the air is quite scented; and then your children would roll about so
merrily in the fresh grass; and then the forest would be so thick that
you could hardly see your house in the midst of the foliage,--I can
fancy that I see it now. In front of the house is a vine full of leaves,
which your husband has planted, and which shades the bank of turf where
he sleeps during the noonday heat, whilst you are going backwards and
forwards desiring the children not to wake their father. I don't know
whether you have remarked it, but in the heat of summer about midday
there is in the woods as deep silence as at midnight, you don't hear the
leaves shake, nor the birds sing."

"Yes, that's true," replied La Louve, almost mechanically, who became
more and more forgetful of the reality, and almost believed she saw
before her the smiling pictures which the poetical imagination of
Fleur-de-Marie, so instinctively amorous of the beauties of nature,
presented before her.

Delighted at the deep attention which her companion lent her, La
Goualeuse continued, allowing herself to be drawn on by the charm of the
thoughts which she called up:

"There is one thing which I love almost as well as the silence of the
woods, and that is the noise of the heavy drops of rain falling on the
leaves; do you like that, too?"

"Oh, yes! I am very fond of a summer shower."

"So am I; and when the trees, the moss, and the grass, are all
moistened, what a delightfully fresh odour they give out! And then, how
the sun, as it passes over the trees, makes all the little drops of
water glisten as they hang from the leaves! Have you ever noticed that?"

"Yes; I remember it now because you tell me of it. Yet, how droll all
this is! But, Goualeuse, you talk so well that one seems to see
everything,--to see everything just as you talk; and then, I really do
not know how to explain it all. But now, what you say seems good, it is
quite pleasant,--just like the rain we were talking of."

"