I hear again the voice of your mother calling repeatedly: 'Go and get Blanche at once, you incorrigibles; it is supper-time, and you know your father expects punctuality at meals.' And Jules would answer, paddling with all his might, 'Do not fear my father's anger. I will take the whole responsibility on my own shoulders. I will make him laugh by telling him that, like His Majesty Louis XIV, he had expected to wait. You know I am a spoiled child in the holidays.'" "Dear fellow!" said Blanche, "he was sad enough that day when you and I found him hiding in this fir grove, where he had concealed himself to escape the first heat of father's indignation. "And he had not done anything so very dreadful after all," said Archie, laughing. "Let us enumerate his crimes," replied Blanche, counting on her fingers. "First, he had disobeyed father's orders by harnessing to the carriage an unruly three-year-old filly which was scarcely to be managed even in a sleigh. Secondly, after a hard tussle with the rash young driver, the filly had taken the bit in her teeth, and as the first proof of her freedom had crushed the unhappy cow belonging to our neighbor Widow Maurice." "A most happy accident for said widow," interposed Archie, "for your father replaced the old animal with two of the finest heifers in his pastures. I remember the anxiety of the poor woman when she learned that some officious spectator had informed your father of the accident. How does it happen that the people whom Jules tormented most assiduously are just the ones who were most devoted to him? What is the spell by which he compels everybody to love him? Widow Maurice used to have hardly a moment's peace while we were home for the holidays; yet she was always in tears when she came to bid Jules good-by." "The reason is not far to seek," said Blanche. "It is that all know his kind heart. You know, moreover, by experience, Archie, that those whom he loves best are just the ones that he teases most unremittingly. But let us continue our enumeration of his misdemeanors on that unlucky day! Thirdly, after killing the cow, the ugly brute ran against a fence, broke one of the wheels, and hurled the driver fifteen feet into the meadow beyond; but Jules, who always falls on his feet, like a cat, was in no way the worse for this adventure. Fourthly, and lastly, after smashing the carriage to splinters on the rocks of the Trois Saumons River, the mare ended by breaking her own legs on the shore, over in the parish of L'Islet."