The Brown Linnet. 17 



kinds of. naughty deeds, had a strong partiality for eating little 

 boys au naturel, that it was always invested for me with a 

 degree of fascination it might not otherwise have possessed: 

 and in fact no greater treat could be afforded me, than to 

 accompany Marie Baudoin, when she periodically paid a visit 

 to the miller, for the purpose of having our corn ground. 

 Sometimes a large sack of plump white wheat would be placed 

 across the donkey's back — the same donkey that once threw 

 me over a hedge and into a pond of water — and on this 

 sack I was allowed to take my seat, much after the fashion 

 of an organ grinder's monkey perched on the top of his musical 

 instrument. Very frequently, however, she carried what was 

 wanted for immediate consumption, a hundredweight or so, 

 upon her shoulders in a bag, and on these occasions I trotted 

 by her side. 



"What a queer old place that mill was to be sure! Two 

 enormous flat stones kept continually groaning, as they turned 

 round and round, one over the other, grinding to bran and 

 flour the com that dropped between them from a large box 

 placed just over the axle whereon they revolved: how I wondered 

 to see the miller pouring the wheat into that box, in order 

 to reach which he had to climb up a ladder of many rungs; 

 and how my wonder increased as I beheld the flour running 

 down, white and soft, into the bag he had placed for its 

 reception. "With what awe I gazed upon the rude, gaudy 

 representations of Saints and Virgins that were pasted on the 

 walls, and the framework of the mill. Toung as I was, about 

 seven or eight, I had heard of Napoleon Buonaparte, and 

 wondered how such a man could be a saint: yet there he 

 was, on the walls of the old mill, in complete armour, with 

 a halo round his head! "While in another picture he was 

 represented in military costume, seated on a cloud, holding 

 out his hand to a miniature representation of himself that 

 was kneeling, apparently on nothing, before him; and under- 

 neath I spelled the legend "Napoleon reoevant son fils en 



c 



