h his
unconscious childish influence, is one of the prettiest features in the
book. Germain, by his journey's end, has his heart so well engaged in
the right quarter that he is proof against the dangerous fascinations of
the coquettish widow.

There is a breath of poetry over the picture, but no denaturalization
of the uncultured types. Germain is honest and warm-hearted, but not
bright of understanding; little Marie is wise and affectionate, but as
unsentimentally-minded as the veriest realist could desire. The native
caution and mercenary habit of thought of the French agricultural class
are indicated by many a humorous touch in the pastorals of George Sand.

Equally pleasing, though not aiming at the almost antique simplicity of
the _Mare au Diable_, is the story of _Francois le Champi_, the
foundling, saved from the demoralization to which lack of the softening
influences of home and parental affection predestine such unhappy
children, through the tenderness his forlorn condition inspires in a
single heart--that of Madeline Blanchet, the childless wife, whose own
wrongs, patiently borne, have quickened her commiseration for the wrongs
of others. Her sympathy, little though it lies in her power to manifest
it, he feels, and its incalculable worth to him, which is such that the
gratitude of a whole life cannot do more than repay it.

Part of the narrative is here put into the mouth of a peasant, and told
in peasant language, or something approaching to it. Over the propriety
of this proceeding, adopted also in _Les Maitres Sonneurs_, French
critics are disagreed, though for the most part they regret it. It is
not for a foreigner to decide between them. One would certainly regret
the absence of some of the extremely original and expressive words and
turns of speech current among the rural population, forms which such a
method enabled her to introduce into the narrative as well as into the
dialogue.

_La Petite Fadette_ is not only worthy of its predecessors but by many
will be preferred to either. There is something particularly attractive
in the portraits of the twin brothers--partly estranged by character,
wholly united by affection,--and in the figure of Fanchon Fadet, an
original in humble life, which has made this little work a general
favorite wherever it is known.

These prose-idylls have been called "The Georgics of France." It is
curious that in a country so largely agricultural, and where nature
present