114 THE EARLY DAYS OF 



down every tree for tiring, and then good-bye to the blackbird and 

 the cuckoo, without whose notes the Spring would be a joyless time. 

 I have walked hundreds of miles in France, taking shelter in farm 

 houses when night approached, and I could never see that the 

 farmers or small holders were so well off as our labourers here. 

 They lived on scanty food, and their stores were kept under the bed 

 on which I lay, while, perhaps, a cow would occupy the room 

 below. 



" I hope you have slept well," my hostess would enquire. 



" I should have slept nmch better but for that horrid hcte noire 

 below ! " 



"Horrid hcte noire! " my hostess screamed. " Why my beautiful 

 cow has been my lullaby ever since I was a child." 



Allotments, where the producer is also the consumer, are of 

 course invaluable to the labourer, but here everyone is so well 

 supplied with land, that surplus stock of potatoes, cabbages, and 

 onions, might be hawked about for a month without finding a 

 purchaser. 



I have met in the Riviera any amount of landlords, whom 

 agricultural depression has sent abroad ; and whea the novelty has 

 worn off, they must find time hang heavily on their hands. 



Several of these good fellows asked me one day to accompany 

 them to a bull-fight in Spain; and when we arrived on the scene 

 of action I thought I had never witnessed a grander spectacle. 

 Eight or ten thousand people gaily dressed, seated in tiers around 

 an area quite an acre in extent ; a cloudless sky above, and as the 

 carnival was going on, hundreds of masqueraders were performing 

 various antics, of which we had a bird's-eye view. Some bull- 

 fighting followed, to the immense delight of the young men and 

 maidens, old men and children, gathered there ; whilst I, although 

 glad to see what the thing was like, should not care to witness such 

 a scene again. 



When all was over, and we were coming down the steps outside, 

 a sylph-like Basque maiden, whose face was hidden by a mask, said 



