1807-27.] VINTAGE-TIME AT MOTIER. 11 



more promptly greet and kiss sisters and cousins,- -the 

 latter especially, for with one of them he was already 

 in love; and to express his great admiration for this 

 cousin he could find nothing better to do than to have 

 her name tattooed on his left arm with sulphuric acid. 

 The result was a severe attack of fever, and two or 

 three weeks of forced inaction and rest for his arm, 

 which betrayed his act to the whole family. 



The two brothers divided their vacations between 

 Motier and Cudrefin, where they enjoyed all the free- 

 dom of country life and the comforts of home and fam- 

 ily surroundings. Their time was passed in fishing, 

 rambling about with their grandfather, Dr. Mayor, in 

 his daily excursions as a country doctor, in gathering 

 in the second crop .of hay, called "regain," and in the 

 "vendanges." This last occupation was the most pleas- 

 ing ; for when the vineyards were richly laden with 

 grapes, the labourers of the Canton of Berne where 

 there are no vineyards on account of the severity of 

 the climate- -gathered by troops from all around the 

 shores of the Lake of Neuchatel, to offer themselves 

 as "vendangeurs," or vintagers, during the time of the 

 gathering of the grapes and the process of crushing 

 the juice under the " pressoir." It was a true festival, 

 when everybody, young and old, was happy, singing 

 throughout the day and calling from vineyard to vine- 

 yard. In the evening at supper, all the " vendangeurs ' 

 sat at the table with the proprietors, and the most pro- 

 ficient singers were called, one after another, to sing 

 popular songs, which were closed in chorus by the 

 whole company. Light wines were used very freely 



