a situation upon which I invite you to meditate, for it
is yours, as it is mine or any one in the world's. Each one of us, just
like James, may consider himself great or small, according as his
neighbor cuts a big or little figure in the world.

[Illustration]

That's why one can truthfully say that James is neither big nor little;
that he is both big and little. It is as God wishes it to be. He is the
last reed of all in our living Pan Pipes.

[Illustration: THREE CHILDREN OF THE SAME VILLAGE, PETER, JAMES AND
JOHN, ARE STANDING UP LOOKING OFF AT SOMETHING. RANGED SIDE BY SIDE THEY
FORM TOGETHER THE OUTLINE OF A PAN PIPES WITH THREE REEDS.

_Printed in France_]

But what are his two comrades doing? They are gazing off
into space, all three of them. At what? At something which has
disappeared below the horizon, something which they can't see any more
but still see in their mind's eye, and which still dazzles them. Little
John has forgotten his eel-skin whip with which just now he incessantly
beat up his wooden shoes in the dusty road. Peter and James, their hands
behind their backs, gaze stolidly.

What they saw, all three, was the wagon of a travelling peddler, a wagon
drawn by his own arms, which had stopped in the village street.

The peddler pulled back the oilcloth that covered his wagon, and in a
minute any quantity of knives, scissors, little guns, puppets, soldiers
of wood and lead, cologne bottles, cakes of soap, pictures, a thousand
dazzling things were exposed to the admiring view of all the men, women
and children in the town. The servants from the farm and the mill were
pale with longing; Peter and James were red with joy. Little John lost
his tongue. Everything in the wagon seemed beautiful and precious to
them. But the most desirable things of all were the unknown articles of
which they could not guess either use or reason: as for example the
bowls polished like mirrors that reflected your face comically deformed;
paintings of Epinol, covered with faces more lively than reality; needle
cases and mysterious boxes that contained unimaginable things.

[Illustration]

The women made purchases of guimpes and lace by the yard, and the
peddler rolled the black oilcloth back again over the riches in his
wagon, and putting himself in the traces once more started on his
further way; and now the wagon and the waggoner have disappeared below
the horizon.

ROGER'S STABLE

It's a great care to ke