he returned home at night half tipsy. "Did he dare to venture to the
shooting-match? I was told that he was seen sneaking about the
outskirts of the village! where is he now?"

"He went to bed more than an hour ago," answered his mother, "and
was no more at the shooting-match than I was, for I saw him reading
in the garden."

"Mark, _reading_!" replied his father. "What could he be
reading? It would be a miracle to see him with a book in his hand. An
idle fellow like him, who never did learn any thing, and never will!"

The vinedresser's wife was silent, and after putting poor little
Peter to bed, who was quite tired and weary, she managed to get the
father to bed also, and peace reigned for a season in this miserable
abode.

Mark, however, who was not asleep when his father returned, had
heard himself called a good-for-nothing idle fellow, and he trembled
from head to foot, when he found he had been seen in the neighborhood
of the village.

"What a good thing it was," said he to himself, "that I did not go
on! It was certainly God who prevented me!" added he, half ashamed of
the thought because it was so new to him; but he determined no longer
to resist it.

On the morrow, to the great surprise of his father and mother, Mark
got up in good humor; he answered his father without grumbling, and
when he was desired to go and work in the field, Mark hastened to