fancy which is just come from the hands of nature, and old age juft ready to re-enter her bofom. Children, as you have feen, conduct the flocks on the mountains, it is there they acquire that vigour, that agility, that hardinefs which particularly diftinguish the inhabitants of the mountain; they are trained to climb the rocks, to cross torrents; they are accustomed to contemplate without fear the depth of the precipices, and often run on the edge of the abyfs to recover a fugitive goat; but at fifteen they quit the fhepherds' life to become cultivators, at this epoch, the young man, proud of being affociated to the labours of his father, abandons without regret his mountain, he joyfully refigns his crook into weaker hands; henceforth the pick-axe and the fpade will more worthily employ his nervous arm, yet, before he defcends into the plains, he cafts a forrowful look upon his flock, hitherto the fole object of all his cares, and he does not receive without a tender regret the last careffes of his faithful dog. Admitted into the clafs of labourers, we remain there till the decline of our ftrength, but when we can no longer labour at agriculture we humbly refume our fcrip and crook, and pafs the reft of our days in these meadows." The old man was filent, a flight cloud for an inftant darkened the ferenity of hisbrow: I faw that he recalled with fome regret the time when old age had forced him to devote hinfelf for ever to a paftoral life; but he was filent, and I dared not to interrogate him more; but foon after breaking filence, " and for the remainder," refumed he, "our old age is perfectly happy, it flides away in a fweet tranquillity"-"but," interrupted I, "fo long a habit of labouring muft render this eternal repofe tedious?" "no," replied he--"because this repofe is ufeful. I fhould be confumed with wearinefs if I remained unemployed in our cottages; he who does not render himself useful to others is a burthen to himfelf; but taking care of thefe flocks, fitting all day under thefe rocks, I am as

ufeful

ufeful to my family as when I was able to till the earth and to follow the plough; this thought alone fuffices to make me love my peaceable retreat. Befides, think, that when a man has during fifty years exercifed without intermiffion his arms and his ftrength, that it is a fweet reflection to have no other duty to fulfill than that of paffing his days foftly reclining on the turf of the meadow"--" and in this ftate of inaction do you never experience difcontent?" "How can I experience difcontent furrounded by fuch dear objects, and which recal to my memory fuch dear thoughts! I have traverfed all thofe mountains which encompafs us in my earlieft youth, I can difcover from here by the fituation of the groupes of fir trees and of the mafs of rocks, the places I oftcneft frequented; my weakened fight will not permit me to diftinguish, all that your eyes difcover, but my memory fupplies the defect, it reprefents faithfully what my eye cannot perceive, this kind of reverie demands a certain attention which increases the intereft. My imagination tranfports me on the elevated hills which are loft in the clouds; impreffions never to be obliterated guide me to traverse those winding routs, thofe fteep and flippery paths, which interfect and unite them, whilft my decaying memory abandons me all at once fometimes on the brink of a torrent, fometimes on the edge of a precipice; I stop, I shudder, and if that inftant I can recollect the road I have loft, my heart palpitates with as much joy as in the fpring of my days. It is thus without moving from my place, tranfported on the mountains, I fee them, I run over them, and I recal all the quick emotions and all the pleasures of my youth."

As the old man ended thefe words, we heard at a distance and at the fummit of the mountain behind us the notes of a flageolet, "Ah!" faid the old man, fmiling, "there's Tobie come on the rock; he is repeating the air that I love fo much, it is the romance

Hh2

that

66

that I played fo often at his age!" in faying thefe words the good old man marked time flowly with. his head, and gaiety fparkled in his eyes. "Who is Tobie?" I asked. He is a fhepherd in his fifteenth year, he loves my grand-daughter Lina, they are of the fame age; may I fee them united before I die! This is the time our grand-daughter brings us fome. refreshment every morning. Then Tobie always brings his goats to the rock where he knows I repofe. The old man was ftill fpeaking when I perceived at a diftance at the other end of the valley a number of young girls who advanced neatly dreffed, and were foon difperfed in the plain: at the fame time the thephepds of the hills all ran together and appared an the fteep borders of the mountains that encompa us; one party preffed forward to the extremity of precipice, which made one fhudder to fee the cards that fupported them thake under their feet; the others had climbed up trees in order to difcover fooner the lively and amiable party that attended every day at the fame hour: at this epoch of the day the flocks of the mountain were abandoned on an inftant to wander at liberty; all was in movement on the hills and in the plain; curiofity, growing love, paternal tenderness, produced a general emotion among both the young and old fhepherds. The young villagers feparated to feek their gran l-fathers in the meadow to prefent their pretty ofier baskets with fruits and cheefes, they ran with eagerness towards thefe good old men who held out their arms to receive them; I admired the grace and light figure of thefe pretty peafants of the Pyrences, who were all remarkable for the elegance and beauty of their fhapes; but my heart was moft interefted for Lina; fhe was ftill at a hundred paces from us when her grand-father pointed her out from a group of young girls, in faving, "There is the prettieft," and it was not paternal fondnefs, for indeed Lina was charming.---She threw herfelf into the arms

of

of the old man, who preffed her tenderly to his heart, fhe then quitted him to fetch her basket, which one of her companions held, in this motion Lina raised her timid eyes towards the fummit of the mountain, and Tobie, on the point of the rock, received this tender look, for which he had impatiently waited fince the rifing of aurora, and which fweetly recompensed him for all his day's labour! Tobie then threw down a bunch of rofes which fell a few paces from the group formed by Lina and her companions. Lina blushed, but dared not pick them up; the old man enjoyed her confufion, and the other girls laughing with a little malice and a great deal of gaiety, cried out all together: "It is for Lina, it is for Lina" at laft Lina as condemned to take the bouquet; with a Trembling and fhe placed it in her bofom, and to

leher embarraffment took refuge on the rock_with her grand-father, and feated herself by him. I left them to enjoy the charms of a converfation full of tenderness and fweetnefs, and with my head full of the refpectable old man, of Lina and of Tobie, I reached my little habitation, faying, if happiness exists on earth, it is here; fuch are the fentiments which ought to affure us the poffeffion.

We have feen that the life of a peafent of the Pyrenees is devided into three remarkable epochs; he his first a fhepherd of the mountain, from the age eight to fifteen; he then enters the clafs of the labourer, and when he arrives at old age he becomes a fhepherd of the valley. The moft brilliant of thefe periods is when the young man is promoted to the rank of a labourer, they celebrate this with great folomnity. As foon as the fhepherd of the mountain has attained his fifteenth year, his father goes and conducts him into the fields or vine-yards, which he is from henceforth to cultivate: thismomorable day is a day of rejoicing to the young man's family. Hh3 I withed

1

I wished to fee this rural ceremony; I fpoke to my good old friend, Lina's grandfather, who informed me that Tobie in a month would quit for ever the mountain and the rock, to which his love for Lina had fo often conducted him. And there is another circumftance which will add still more to the interest of this ceremony: Tobie's father, who is feventy, will on that day renounce the class of a cultivator to enter into that of a fhepherd; he will affemble his four fons of a first marriage; Tobie is a child of the fecond, and the youngest of his brothers is at least thirty. The day fixed for the ceremony at laft arrived, I was on the plain three hours before fun set. I found all the old fhepherds affémbled at the foot of the mountain, where Tobie watched his flock; foon after we perceived a croud of peafants and villagers advancing of all ages, fantaftically attired; Lina, conducted by her mother, placed herfelf near me, and without doubt was not the leaft interested in the feftival. This party preceded Tobie's father, who gravely advanced, furrounded by his four fons; the old man carried a fpade, and was fupported by his eldeft fon. Being arrived at the foot of the mountain, all the multitude feparated to let him have a free paffage, but the old man ftopped, and forrowfully furveying the fteep road which led to the fummit of the mountain, he fighed, and after a moment's filenc, ---"I ought," faid he, "according to the general cuftom, to go myfelf and fetch my fon, but I am feventy years old, and can only wait for him?"

"Ah! my father," cried his children, "we will carry you.' They received univerfal applause for this propofition, the old man fimiled, and his fons formed with their arms twined together a kind of litter, took him gently up, and began the march immediately.. All the country women remained in the plain, but I followed the old man, as I wifhed to be a witnefs of the meeting with Tobic. We walked

flowly,