Autumn Glory; Or, The Toilers of the Field

golden-feathered cock, with fiery eyes under his red crest, that crowed every morning. Marie-Rose had reared him. Now hearing

en branches, which led down to the Marais. About some hundred yards from La Fromentière all vegetation abruptly ceased, and one came upon a low wa

all bent and driven towards the east; leafless above, they met and over-arched beneath. Looking at it from outside one simply saw a billowy mass of bare branches; but on making one's way down the central path, one found oneself in a leafy shade some four feet high, s

tting upon the forked branch of an apple-tree, hidden among them like a partridge i

oked like patches of grey fur stitched together faded away into nothing in the distance. Here and there canals, cutting each other at right angles, looked like tarnished mirrors, the mist curling in smoke above them. Then vaguely from out the fog darker outlines began to appear, like oases in the desert; they were farmhouses built on the low-lying

's last sleep to the sighing of the wind, under the shelter of the Cross. She loved nothing better than that horizon where every tiniest road was familiar to her, f

ther say?" She was beginning to grow uneasy, when, as she was gazing into the di

d behind him, standing looking at her in the

see you com

overs and a teal tied together. The next moment, resting the gun he carried against

s and such fine ones! I had a couple of hours' sleep in the barn at La Pin?onnière, and if the fa

afraid. Father spoke to me so angrily last night-he had

them. I mean to win you by my work, to ask your f

rmination she read in the lad's face. And reserving her

t like in

house she lives in is called the Chateau, as I have told you before, in the parish of Chatelliers; but it is not by any means a castle, Rousille, only two rooms, in which live

ered, laughing, "that year seem

who are growing up. They are not dresse

little shawl and the long velvet ribbons encircling the bust. "All round there two rows of velvet; rich girls have even three. You would b

and which never touched her, followi

t send home the wages that your father gives me. Then I have two brothers who have finished their schooling, and look after cows and b

returned Rousille, wi

ull sunshine; and as we have plenty of trees and moss and ferns about us, the air is a very joy to breathe, quite different from here; for our country is not at all like that of the Marais; it is all hills, here, there,

land tille

. It takes strong oxen, somet

s many, when i

father is a rich man. But down there, believe me,

le, the smile left h

en work in

is. Even my mother, who goes gleaning at harvest-time and when the chestnuts are gathered, is never seen working in

s of his daily life, the young

ers as a lad who has no fear of hard work. We will have our own little house to ourselves, and if o

ech of humble love-making whe

usi

she said, turning p

th beating hearts, thinking only

, it was now

usi

t to the path that divided the orchard. There straightening herself, she saw her father standing before her in the road. H

e you doi

who had come to her aid in the moment of danger. With an air of defiance he drew himself up, and strode in front of her. Then the girl ventured to look again at her father. He was no longer occupied with her, nor

y farm-serva

smy mad

I am

en with Rous

h a slight tremor, which he could not control

ent on his breast, as of a master whose kindness has

ere, at onc

t was a matter to be settled among men fi

wed at a short distance, his gun slung on his back, swinging the birds he had shot in one hand. Far behind them ca

w them in, but leaning against a pillar of the ruined gateway, half hid

se of wooden shoes on the gravel; but Rousille had seen the cripple crouching down in the first rays of the sun, beyond the stables; he was nodding

under the brim of his hat, but there was no malice upon his phlegmatic countenance, nothing more than a mild curiosity broadening his lips in

ad not changed; it was still the dignified paternal look of one who regrets parting from a good servant, and yet is resolutely determined to suffer no encroachment upon his authority, no disrespect to his position. Leaning his elbow upon an old cask s

said. "You received your wages at Mid

ally went over the brief history of his connection with the lad, who, come by chance to the Marais in search of burnt cow-dung, used by the Vendéens for manure, had been then and there hired by him, and had quickly fallen into the ways of his new master. The farmer thought of the three years that the stranger lad h

inety-five francs

right." From his coat pocket where he had already placed them, Toussaint Lumineau dr

the money Jean Ne

e me any longer a

use you are idle, nor even, though it did annoy me, because you are too fond of shooting wild-fowl. You have

and I like her,

hould marry a girl like Rousille is an impossibility

alf closed his eyes, the corners of his mouth drooped as thou

fit. She is young, and so am I. Only say

farmer a

nnot be. Y

aciturn race from which he sprang, he said nothing, took up the money, counted it, dropping the pieces one by one into his pocket as he did so. Then without another word, as though the farmer were not in existence, he began to colle

nd his eyes scanned the windows of the house seeking Rousille. She was nowhere to be seen. Then in the middle of the great cour

usi

er face. But almost at the same moment she stopped, intimidated by the sight of her father on the threshold of the shed, and str

nni

d out, with arms rigid on his crutches, his huge body shaking with the effort. Roaring like some wild beast with wide-open mouth he h

on Sarraillon-l

tured him, the agony caused by the effort he was making, rendered the convulsed face terrible to behold, as it was projected forward by

rrified for the man she loved. She ran to Jean Nesmy, put her

ack, slowly, step by step, while the cripple, g

my sister

e interposed from the

rin; and you, Nesmy, loose

ring to compromise his dignity. The cripple stopped short

and soon they were within the portal of the gateway, framed in sunshine. Th

my Rousille

tyard without looking back, her

round the corner of the house

ineau, I shal

retorted t

gether as he walked, and yet the load seemed heavy. A feeling of dismay at having to go back to the daily seeking of employment had come over him while making up the modest bundle. He was already thinking of his mother's alarm at this sudden return. Every step was a wrench from some loved object, for he had lived three ye

erly four mills had been busily grinding corn and now only two were at

s of poplars, inhabited islands in the desert of marshland, where he was leaving good friends, and the recollection of happy hours that come back in sorrow; his eyes scanned the crowded houses

und the fields along which every evening, for the last two years especially, he had never failed to sing as he drove the cattle homewards. When his eyes lighted on the dwarf orch

am going;" and, walking on, he stroked the dog's head between his ears, in the

s-Rouge. I do not bel

nd; but when they had reached the last hedge of La