I am taking the widows to dine at Riom. A sad
town whose anagram constitutes it an objectionable neighbor to healing
springs: Riom, Mori.

"July 28th.--Hello, how's this! My two widows have been visited by two
gentlemen who came to look for them. Two widowers, without doubt. They
are leaving this evening. They have written to me on fancy notepaper.

"July 29th.--Alone! Long excursion on foot to the extinct crater of
Nachere. Splendid view.

"July 30th.--Nothing. I am taking the treatment.

"July 31st.--Ditto. Ditto. This pretty country is full of polluted
streams. I am drawing the notice of the municipality to the abominable
sewer which poisons the road in front of the hotel. All the kitchen
refuse of the establishment is thrown into it. This is a good way to
breed cholera.

"August 1st.--Nothing. The treatment.

"August 2d.--Admirable walk to Chateauneuf, a place of sojourn for
rheumatic patients, where everybody is lame. Nothing can be queerer than
this population of cripples!

"August 3d.--Nothing. The treatment.

"August 4th.--Ditto. Ditto.

"August 5th.--Ditto. Ditto.

"August 6th.--Despair! I have just weighed myself. I have gained 310
grams. But then?

"August 7th.--Drove sixty-six kilometres in a carriage on the mountain.
I will not mention the name of the country through respect for its
women.

"This excursion had been pointed out to me as a beautiful one, and
one that was rarely made. After four hours on the road, I arrived at
a rather pretty village on the banks of a river in the midst of an
admirable wood of walnut trees. I had not yet seen a forest of walnut
trees of such dimensions in Auvergne. It constitutes, moreover, all the
wealth of the district, for it is planted on the village common.
This common was formerly only a hillside covered with brushwood. The
authorities had tried in vain to get it cultivated. There was scarcely
enough pasture on it to feed a few sheep.

"To-day it is a superb wood, thanks to the women, and it has a curious
name: it is called the Sins of the Cure.

"Now I must say that the women of the mountain districts have the
reputation of being light, lighter than in the plain. A bachelor who
meets them owes them at least a kiss; and if he does not take more he is
only a blockhead. If we consider this fairly, this way of looking at the
matter is the only one that is logical and reasonable. As woman, whether
she be of the town or the country, has her natural mission