160 A TOUR EOTJNU MY GARDEN. 



the touching manoeuvres of shame. The elder of the two 

 children was dressed with all attention to cleanliness ; but his 

 clothes, which had become short and tight, and his hair, that was 

 too long and dry, showed that his mother took all the care 

 possible of him that did not require money. I cannot tell 

 what it was that saddened me when near this woman ; her 

 countenance was handsome, calm, and dignified ; but I sur- 

 prised a look gently raised towards heaven, and then failing 

 back upon her two children, a sort of mute and furtive 

 prayer. A slight, but cold and disagreeable mist was felling. 

 All the women descended successively into the cabins ; some 

 men only remained upon deck ; she was seated between her 

 two children. She folded the plaid over the younger one. 

 I would have given anything in the world to have detained 

 the last woman that descended to the cabin ; for I had seen 

 what it was kept the poor mother on deck. Between her 

 wrist and her glove I had seen the end of a yellow paper, 

 which was the ticket given her in exchange for the price of 

 her passage: mine was red, and designated the first place, 

 she, therefore, had only taken second places ; upon deck this 

 was of no consequence, but if she wanted shelter, she must 

 go down into a cabin in which were assembled all the travellers 

 of the second class, workmen and meanly dressed women. I 

 put up a prayer from the bottom of my heart that the rain 

 might cease. A few minutes afterwards, a ray of sunshine 

 dissipated the clouds ; I believed that I had been heard, and 

 I thanked God as earnestly as 1 had prayed. 



" As we were leaving Trevoux on the left, all the travellers 

 remarked a terraced garden on the Sa6ne, shaded by a row 

 of beautiful trees; these were the trees of Judea, whose 

 blossoms, closely clinging to the branches, looked like a thick 

 rose-coloured bower. A ray of the sun illuminated this 

 smiling decoration. The boy directed his mother's attention 

 to it. This drew a smile for her child from the bottom of 

 her heart — but the smile faded away, and froze upon her lips. 

 I could not remove my eyes from these three beings, and it 

 appeared to me that a malignant fairy took delight in expos- 

 ing to me, and making me guess, one by one, all the poverties 

 they concealed. Some one asked what o'clock it was ; the 

 boy felt in his pocket, and my heart was oppressed with hope 



