296 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



" To be sure not," continued my companion ; " but 

 even my woods, which I always took such pleasure in, 

 they can't leave alone." 



"What is it they do?" I enquired. 



" Did you not see, as we were going up the moun- 

 tain this morning, the bark peeled off several trees ? 

 Well, where the bark is off, a worm enters and de- 

 stroys the tree. I could show you places where there 

 are twenty or thirty in that state. The worst is, the 

 disease is infectious ; and when one tree has been 

 treated so, it is sure to spread to several others. I 

 think I should shoot a fellow if I caught him at it." 



" But what is their motive?" 



"Malice, mischief, ill-will," he answered. "What 

 other motive could they have, as they gain nothing by 

 it ? And yet they want us to help them out with wood, 

 etc., and are mightily surprised and insolent if we say 

 a word. My trees used to be my great delight ; for 

 as to shooting the game, I don't care about that : it 

 never cost me an effort to see a stag or a chamois and 

 not to fire at it." 



"And what is the price of venison?" I asked. 



" Eight kreutzers a pound*. We are obliged to sell 

 it cheap, or we should not dispose of it at all. If we 



ever, when too late, there is hardly one who does not regret the 

 change, and wish that " the good old times " would come again j for 

 to many a peasant this indemnity was a source of revenue : it was 

 a part of his income in fact, and, as such, entered into all his calcu- 

 lations. 



* One-third of a penny less than threepence. Nine kreutzers are 

 equal to threepence. 



