nd try his luck there. The only thing
that I regret is that I didn't make the venture myself when there was
still time."

Mathieu began to laugh. Was it not singular that he, a bourgeois with
a bachelor's degree and scientific attainments, should dream of coming
back to the soil, to the common mother of all labor and wealth, when
this peasant, sprung from peasants, cursed and insulted the earth, and
hoped that his son would altogether renounce it? Never had anything
struck him as more significant. It symbolized that disastrous exodus
from the rural districts towards the towns, an exodus which year by year
increased, unhinging the nation and reducing it to anaemia.

"You are wrong," he said in a jovial way so as to drive all bitterness
from the discussion. "Don't be unfaithful to the earth; she's an old
mistress who would revenge herself. In your place I would lay myself out
to obtain from her, by increase of care, all that I might want. As in
the world's early days, she is still the great fruitful spouse, and she
yields abundantly when she is loved in proper fashion."

But Lepailleur, raising his fists, retorted: "No, no; I've had enough of
her!"

"And, by the way," continued Mathieu, "one thing which astonishes me
is that no courageous, intelligent man has ever yet come forward to
do something with all that vast abandoned estate yonder--that
Chantebled--which old Seguin, formerly, dreamt of turning into a
princely domain. There are great stretches of waste land, woods which
one might partly fell, heaths and moorland which might easily be
restored to cultivation. What a splendid task! What a work of creation
for a bold man to undertake!"

This so amazed Lepailleur that he stood there openmouthed. Then his
jeering spirit asserted itself: "But, my dear sir--excuse my saying
it--you must be mad! Cultivate Chantebled, clear those stony tracts,
wade about in those marshes! Why, one might bury millions there
without reaping a single bushel of oats! It's a cursed spot, which my
grandfather's father saw such as it is now, and which my grandson's
son will see just the same. Ah! well, I'm not inquisitive, but it would
really amuse me to meet the fool who might attempt such madness."

"_Mon Dieu_, who knows?" Mathieu quietly concluded. "When one only loves
strongly one may work miracles."

La Lepailleur, after going to fetch a dozen eggs, now stood erect
before her husband in admiration at hearing him talk so eloquently to