linen. Michel was wrong, probably, in his attempt to separate them.
The house was large enough, or if not, there was still room for
another house to be built in Granpere. They would have done well as
man and wife. But then the head of a household naturally objects to
seeing the boys and girls belonging to him making love under his
nose without any reference to his opinion. 'Things were not made so
easy for me,' he says to himself, and feels it to be a sort of duty
to take care that the course of love shall not run altogether
smooth. George, no doubt, was too abrupt with his father; or
perhaps it might be the case that he was not sorry to take an
opportunity of leaving for a while Granpere and Marie Bromar. It
might be well to see the world; and though Marie Bromar was bright
and pretty, it might be that there were others abroad brighter and
prettier.

His father had spoken to him on one fine September afternoon, and
within an hour George was with the men who were stripping bark from
the great pine logs up on the side of the mountain. With them, and
with two or three others who were engaged at the saw-mills, he
remained till the night was dark. Then he came down and told
something of his intentions to his stepmother. He was going to
Colmar on the morrow with a horse and small cart, and would take
with him what clothes he had ready. He did not speak to Marie that
night, but he said something to his father about the timber and the
mill. Gaspar Muntz, the head woodsman, knew, he said, all about the
business. Gaspar could carry on the work till it would suit Michel
Voss himself to see how things were going on. Michel Voss was sore
and angry, but he said nothing. He sent to his son a couple of
hundred francs by his wife, but said no word of explanation even to
her. On the following morning George was off without seeing his