eight months of the year there.' 'And the rest?' 'At Paris, I believe.' 'Does he see any company?' 'The townspeople of Bruyeres, and now and then, some of our old men go to taste his soup and chat with him.' 'And from Paris does he bring nobody?' 'Nobody but his daughter.' 'He is much in the right. And how does he employ himself?' 'In judging between us--in making up our quarrels--in marrying our children--in maintaining peace in our families--in helping them when the times are bad.' 'You must take me to see his village,' said Alceste, 'that must be interesting.' "He was surprised to find the roads, even the cross-roads, bordered with hedges, and kept with care; but, coming on a party of men occupied in mending them, 'Ah!' he said, 'so you've got forced labour here?' 'Forced?' answered an old man who presided over the work. 'We know nothing of that here, sir; all these men are paid, we constrain nobody; only, if there comes to the village a vagrant, or a do-nothing, they send him to me, and if he wants bread he can gain it; or, he must go to seek it elsewhere.' 'And who has established this happy police?' 'Our good lord--our father--the father to all of us.' 'And where do the funds come from?' 'From the commonalty; and, as it imposes the tax on itself, it does not happen here, as too often elsewhere, that the rich are exempted at the expense of the poor.' "The esteem of Alceste increased every moment for the wise and benevolent master who governed all this little country. 'How powerful would a king be!' he said to himself--'and how happy a state! if all the great proprietors followed the example of this one; but Paris absorbs both property and men, it robs all, and swallows up everything.' "The first glance at the village showed him the image of confidence and comfort. He entered a building which had the appearance of a public edifice, and found there a crowd of children, women, and old men occupied in useful labour;--idleness was only permitted to the extremely feeble. Childhood, almost at its first steps out of the cradle, caught the habit and the taste for work; and old age, at the borders of the tomb, still exercised its trembling hands; the season in which the earth rests brought every vigorous arm to the workshops--and then the lathe, the saw, and the hatchet gave new value to products of nature.