the eve of marrying; Gervais, with
his square brow and wrestler's limbs, who would soon be fighting the
good fight of agriculture; Claire, who was silent and hardworking, and
lacked beauty, but possessed a strong heart and a housewife's sensible
head. Next Gregoire, the undisciplined, self-willed schoolboy, who was
ever beating the hedges in search of adventures; and then the three last
girls: Louise, plump and good natured; Madeleine, delicate and of dreamy
mind; Marguerite, the least pretty but the most loving of the trio. And
when, behind their father and their mother, the eleven came along one
after the other, followed too by Berthe and Christophe, representing
yet another generation, it was a real procession that one saw, as, for
instance, on that fine Sunday on the Grand Place of Janville, already
crowded with holiday-making folks. And the effect was irresistible;
even those who were scarcely pleased with the prodigious success of
Chantebled felt enlivened and amused at seeing the Froments galloping
about and invading the place. So much health and mirth and strength
accompanied them, as if earth with her overflowing gifts of life had
thus profusely created them for to-morrow's everlasting hopes.

"Let those who think themselves more numerous come forward!" Rose
resumed gayly. "And then we will count one another."

"Come, be quiet!" said her mother, who, after alighting from the wagon,
had set Nicolas on the ground. "You will end by making people hoot us."

"Hoot us! Why, they admire us: just look at them! How funny it is,
mamma, that you are not prouder of yourself and of us!"

"Why, I am so very proud that I fear to humiliate others."

They all began to laugh. And Mathieu, standing near Marianne, likewise
felt proud at finding himself, as he put it, among "the sacred
battalion" of his sons and daughters. To that battalion worthy Madame
Desvignes herself belonged, since her daughter Charlotte was adding
soldiers to it and helping it to become an army. Such as it was indeed,
this was only the beginning; later on the battalion would be seen
ever increasing and multiplying, becoming a swarming victorious race,
great-grandchildren following grandchildren, till there were fifty
of them, and a hundred, and two hundred, all tending to increase the
happiness and beauty of the world. And in the mingled amazement and
amusement of Janville gathered around that fruitful family there was
certainly some of the instinctive a