appeared at the edge of the wood.

"Here are those Aigues people!" exclaimed Catherine, helping Genevieve
to rise.

"Do you want to live?" hissed Nicolas in the child's ear.

"What then?" she asked.

"Tell them we were all playing, and I'll forgive you," said Nicolas,
in a threatening voice.

"Little wretch, mind you say it!" repeated Catherine, whose glance was
more terrifying than her brother's murderous threat.

"Yes, I will, if you let me alone," replied the child. "But anyhow I
will never go out again without my scissors."

"You are to hold your tongue, or I'll drown you in the Avonne," said
Catherine, ferociously.

"You are monsters," cried the abbe, coming up; "you ought to be
arrested and taken to the assizes."

"Ha! and pray what do you do in your drawing-rooms?" said Nicolas,
looking full at the countess and Blondet. "You play and amuse
yourselves, don't you? Well, so do we, in the fields which are ours.
We can't always work; we must play sometimes,--ask my sister and La
Pechina."