ield languished. In lieu of whisky, there was a beverage
most innocuous, unstimulating and unpalatable to the army of dusky
laborers.

The following morning, Mr. Madison called in his head-man to make the
usual inquiry, "Nelson, how comes on the crop?"

"Po'ly, Mars' Jeems--monsus po'ly."

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Things is seyus."

"What do you mean by serious?"

"We gwine los' dat crap."

"Lose the crop! Why should we lose it?"

"'Cause dat ar crap ar heap too big a crap to be gethered 'thout
whisky. 'Lasses-and-water nuver gethered no crap sence de woil' war'
made, ner 'taint gwine to."

Mr. Madison succumbed: the whisky was procured, the "crap" was
"gethered," case-bottles and decanters reappeared, and the ancient
order was restored at Montpelier, never again to be disturbed.

NOTES.

Amidst the recent hurly-burly of politics in France, involving the
fate of the Thiers government, if not of the republic itself, a minor
grievance of the artists has probably been little noticed by the
general public. Yet a grievance it was, and one which caused men of
taste and sentiment to cry out loudly. The threatened act of vandalism
against which they protested was a proposal to fell part of the Forest
of Fontainebleau. The castle and forest have long belonged to the
state, but why the woods should now be cut down by the government is
not clear. The motive is probably to turn the fine timber into
cash, though a Paris wit, in pretended despair of other explanation,
jokingly alleged, at the time of Prince Napoleon's late expulsion from
France, that the government was afraid the prince, taking refuge in
its dense recesses, might there conceal himself (_a la_ Charles II.,
we presume) in one of its venerable oaks. At any rate, it was arranged
to level a part of the timber, and on hearing of this threatened
mutilation of a favorite resort the French artists rallied to beg M.
Thiers, like the character in General Morris's ballad, to "spare those
trees." And well may they petition, for the forest contains nearly
thirty-five thousand acres, abounding in beautiful and picturesque
scenery. It can boast finer trees than any other French forest, while
its meadows, lawns and cliffs furnish specimens of almost every plant
and flower to be found in France. Now, when we add that its views are
exceedingly varied, its rocks, ravines, plateaus and thickets
each offering some entirely different and admirable study to the
la