plentiful in the direction of Mareuil, took Gregoire
with him; and when they found themselves alone among the plantations of
the plateau, he began to talk to him seriously.

"You know I'm not pleased with you, my lad," said he. "I really cannot
understand the idle life which you lead here, while all the rest of us
are hard at work. I shall wait till October since you have positively
promised me that you will then come to a decision and choose the calling
which you most fancy. But what is all this tittle-tattle which I hear
about appointments which you keep with the daughter of the Lepailleurs?
Do you wish to cause us serious worry?"

Gregoire quietly began to laugh.

"Oh, father! You are surely not going to scold a son of yours because
he happens to be on friendly terms with a pretty girl! Why, as you may
remember, it was I who gave her her first bicycle lesson nearly ten
years ago. And you will recollect the fine white roses which she helped
me to secure in the enclosure by the mill for Denis' wedding."

Gregoire still laughed at the memory of that incident, and lived afresh
through all his old time sweethearting--the escapades with Therese along
the river banks, and the banquets of blackberries in undiscoverable
hiding-places, deep in the woods. And it seemed, too, that the love
of childhood had revived, and was now bursting into consuming fire, so
vividly did his cheeks glow, and so hotly did his eyes blaze as he thus
recalled those distant times.

"Poor Therese! We had been at daggers drawn for years, and all because
one evening, on coming back from the fair at Vieux-Bourg, I pushed her
into a pool of water where she dirtied her frock. It's true that last
spring we made it up again on finding ourselves face to face in the
little wood at Monval over yonder. But come, father, do you mean to
say that it's a crime if we take a little pleasure in speaking to one
another when we meet?"

Rendered the more anxious by the fire with which Gregoire sought to
defend the girl, Mathieu spoke out plainly.

"A crime? No, if you just wish one another good day and good evening.
Only folks relate that you are to be seen at dusk with your arms
round each other's waist, and that you go stargazing through the grass
alongside the Yeuse."

Then, as Gregoire this time without replying laughed yet more loudly,
with the merry laugh of youth, his father gravely resumed:

"Listen, my lad, it is not at all to my taste to play the gend