save us all. Hey! ran tan plan!--"

"Why don't _you_ do it?" said Godain to Catherine, in a low voice;
"there'd be scuttles full of money to hush up the talk; and for the
time being you'd be mistress here--"

"Shall we glean, or shall we not glean? that's the point," said
Bonnebault. "I don't care two straws for your abbe, not I; I belong to
Conches, where we haven't a black-coat to poke up our consciences."

"Look here," said Vaudoyer, "we had better go and ask Rigou, who knows
the law, whether the Shopman can forbid gleaning, and he'll tell us if
we've got the right of it. If the Shopman has the law on his side,
well, then we must do as the old one says,--see about taking things
sideways."

"Blood will be spilt," said Nicolas, darkly, as he rose after drinking
a whole bottle of wine, which Catherine drew for him in order to keep
him silent. "If you'd only listen to me you'd down Michaud; but you
are miserable weaklings,--nothing but poor trash!"

"I'm not," said Bonnebault. "If you are all safe friends who'll keep
your tongues between your teeth, I'll aim at the Shopman-- Hey! how
I'd like to put a plum through his bottle; wouldn't it avenge me on
those cursed officers?"

"Tut! tut!" cried Jean-Louis Tonsard, who was supposed to be, more or
less, Gaubertin's son, and who had just entered the tavern. This
fellow, who was courting Rigou's pretty servant-girl, had succeeded
his nominal father as clipper of hedges and shrubberies and other