RANDOM MEMORIES 88 



for when we shall have no teeth left to 

 crack them." Not only in this respect does 

 his outlook differ from that of the ordinary 

 peasant. On the morning of bleak 

 reality after a night's potations there are 

 no maudlin whinings ; no extenuating 

 circumstances can plead for Jean Pierre. 

 He sits in hard-eyed realisation of fact, 

 his head unbowed. Surely at such a time 

 his patron saint has pity and forgives ! 

 Fortunately, these mornings are rare, and 

 the remainder find him, his old gun slung 

 from his shoulder, singing as he brushes 

 through the gorse on the hillside ; or 

 perhaps we shall discover him down by the 

 river, his long rod laid aside, while in 

 company with two small white-coifFed 

 children from the farm he gropes for 

 crayfish amongst the boulders. He will 

 turn with that whimsical smile of his. 

 " Ah, monsieur ! late on such a morning, 

 and such a time as we have had too, a 

 whole mine of treasures ! Six clochettes 

 have we found, and placed them in the 

 fairy-ring for the poulpiquets* when they 



* The poulpiquets are the husbands of the fairies. 

 They may still be seen on moonlight nights in remote 



