concocting with her own fat little hands, which
are now much whiter than I remember them.
There is great talk in our establishment
of the insignificance of a country town and
the superior advantages of Paris, where the
qualities of a man of talent can find fitter
appreciation: by this I am led to imagine
that there is some idea of a removal to the
great city one of these days.

Both Elvire, the cook, and Sabine, the many-
officed housemaid, profess their desire to
accompany a family to the metropolis; but a
veil of mystery at present hangs over the
purpose that may exist in certain minds on
this subject, and I am too discreet to make
any inquiries.

A wood fire is romantically considered by
many as a rural delight, much to be preferred
to the black murky coal, which throws off
showers of blacks and dims the lustre of a
smart apartment; but, to an English recluse,
who has little but his fire to enliven him, wood
is far from offering the charm in reality which
is supposed to accompany it. In the first
place, almost all chimneys smoke abroad, and
wood smoke stings the eyes, and is more
subtle; in the next, it is fifty to one, after you
have laid in your stock of logs, that you find
the greater part so damp, that instead of
burning up briskly, they lie and smother away,
softly hissing and consuming without giving
either flame or heat. Add to this, at a certain
point they are sure to fall altogether on each
side their chenets, or supporters, covering
the hearth with ruins, and taking that
opportunity of sending forth volumes of
smoke from the half-burnt tips, which are
pointed outwards, as a matter of course.
Thus, the stranger in despair throws down all
the instruments of torture he has been playing
with en amateur, and summons the bonne, as
I did Sabine the other day; and, in sulky and
discontented mood points to the state of
desolation but too apparent on the wide black
yawning hearth.

"Ah, tiens! " said Sabine, as she knelt down
with a determined air and apostrophised the
refractory element; "we 'll soon know the
reason of this! What, you won't burn, won't
you? I 'll soon be your master—you had
better make up your mind to do it."

During these observations she had put all
straight.

"Ah ça! " said she, "now you have a fire
fit for an Empire."

I could not help smiling at this remark
from a young girl of seventeen, who probably
knew but little of empires and principalities;
and, being propitiated by the brilliant flames
that threw a bright light over the before
sombre room, I was shamed out of my surly
mood by her patient good-temper, to address
a few questions to the young priestess, whose
touch the logs obeyed.

"Are you a native of this town?" I inquired,
knowing that the question would elicit a
little history.

"No," replied she, "I come from very
far off indeed, all the way from
Colomberque!"

"And where," said I, "is Colomberque?"

"Far away on the route of St. Omer, nearly
three leagues from this—ah!" she added with
a sigh, stooping down to arrange a bit of
braise that had already fallen, "it is a terrible
long way from the poor dear mamma,
anyhow!"

"And have you any brothers and sisters?"

"Oh yes—my little sister Florentine is in
service here at the baker's opposite; she is
very young, only twelve, but very good, and
never does anything without asking me, as,
of course, I never do anything either without
asking the poor good mamma."

"That's right," said I; "and how many
more are there?"

"There are the two boys at home, one ten,
the other eight, and papa is there too, you
understand, so that mamma is not dull; but still,
however, I write to her almost every week,
and tell her we are better off here than at
home, which makes her quite happy. She works
at her needle, and papa works as a labourer,
but, poor man! a tree fell on him, as he was
cutting it, and ever since he has great pain in
the side of his head, and is sometimes ill for
weeks; besides poor Alexis's accident, which,
you know, has quite disabled him. He was
only two years old when he fell, and the
doctor insisted that the arm was not broken,
but it was; and, in consequence, he has quite
lost the use of it, and is ill besides. He has
great courage, and wishes to learn very much,
so we go out because of this, otherwise we
should stay at home, as we used, to mind our
cows."

"You have cows, then?"

"Oh yes, and pigs, too, such dear little
pigs: I used to be so fond of them, because
we bring them up, and sell those we do not
want for our own eating. In the country,
you know, we do not live as we do here, but
only eat bacon, which we keep up the
chimney: once, when the great flood was, we
had only one little pig in the stable, and both
papa and mamma were out at work, and I
was left to take care of the children, who
were very little, for I was then only ten
myself. Just at the bottom of our garden
runs a river, and the rain had so swollen it,
that the water had begun to rise higher and
higher till it overflowed the whole orchard
and garden and fields. The cows were in the
stable, and our pig too, and all of a sudden I
thought, What if the dear little animal should
be drowned! so I ran out across the yard,
which was beginning to be filled with water
too, got to the stable, and carried away the
pig in my arms. I was afraid the water
would get into the house, so I shut all the
doors, made the little ones go upstairs, and
put them to bed, and the pig in my bed with
my youngest sister and me. Neither papa
nor mamma came home that night, for the