10 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



country around, as he went from village to 

 village among the sick. The grandmother 

 was frail in health, but a great favorite among 

 the children, for whom she had an endless 

 fund of stories, songs, and hymns. Aunt 

 Lisette, an unmarried daughter, who long 

 lived to maintain the hospitality of the old 

 Cudrefin house and to be beloved as the kind- 

 est of maiden aunts by two or three genera- 

 tions of nephews and nieces, was the domestic 

 providence of these family gatherings, where 

 the praises of her excellent dishes were annu- 

 ally sung. The roof was elastic ; there was 

 no question about numbers, for all came who 

 could ; the more, the merrier, with no diminu- 

 tion of good cheer. 



The Sunday after Easter was the great pop- 

 ular f^te. Then every house was busy color- 

 ing Easter eggs and making fi-itters. The 

 young girls and the lads of the village, the 

 former in their prettiest dresses and the latter 

 with enormous bouquets of artificial flowers 

 in their hats, went together to church in the 

 morning. In the afternoon the traditional 

 match between two runners, chosen from the 

 village youths, took place. They were dressed 

 in white, and adorned with bright ribbons. 

 With music before them, and followed by all 



