When they heard we were English
all was explained: '_Ces diables d'Anglais sont capables de tout_.'
While crossing the country in this fashion we passed a spot on the highroad
where a man was getting ready to thresh his wheat. He had prepared the
place by spreading over it a layer of cow-dung, and levelling it with his
bare feet until it was quite smooth and hard. It is in this way that the
threshing-floors are usually made.
'You see that _type?_' said the young man who was driving, and who balanced
himself on the edge of a board.
'Yes.'
'Well, he owns more land than any other peasant about here, and is rich,
and yet, rather than turn a bit of his ground into a threshing-floor, he
brings his corn where you see him and threshes it upon the road.'
I said to myself that this man was not the first to discover that one
way to get on is to trespass as much as possible upon the rights of that
easy-going neighbour called the Public.
The hills between the two valleys were, for the most part, wooded with
natural forest, with a dense undergrowth of heather and gorse. As soon as
we began to descend towards the Dronne, the great southern broom, six or
eight feet high, was seen in splendid flower upon the roadside banks.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319