284 OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



There's the spring ! It is magnificent. All the world de- 

 scends here for to see the spring ! " 



"Is that it ? " we asked, pointing to the pump. 



" Oui-dam. Yes, certainly, that's it," said the brave 

 Breton. 



But we wouldn't budge. We told him it was nothing, and 

 not worth taking two steps to see ; whereupon he shrugged 

 his shoulders, his eyes twinkled with humour, and he ad- 

 mitted that we were quite right ; adding that, after all, every- 

 thing round about was pretty much like this ; and, in fact, 

 he began to depreciate all the ordinary excursions from 

 Dinan, except one really beautiful route, which he would 

 show us. Of course this resulted in his keeping us out 

 double the time we had bargained for, but it was well worth 

 the money. 



In driving through a new country it was, I had hitherto 

 considered, and so also had my second Step-Grandmother, 

 a great thing to have with us a Well-informed Friend, who 

 " knew the place well, and had seen most of it before," 



He had, it turned out, utterly forgotten all about it. His 

 explanation was that the place had been so altered since 

 his last visit. As, however, all the most recent guide-books 

 state that in their principal characteristic features neither 

 the towns nor villages of Brittany have undergone any 

 change for the last six hundred years, this com.putation 

 would make my Well-informed Friend a Patriarch of some 

 considerable standing, and first cousin, perhaps, to the Wan- 

 dering Jew. 



He made up for this, however, by being highly instructive. 



