with thatch, and walls sometimes all covered with moss and ivy.

At length the diligence arrived at Coutances, and the change was very great, on entering it, from the broad and handsome avenue over which the horses had been galloping for more than two hours, to the narrow and roughly paved streets of the town.

The diligence stopped in what seemed to be the very centre of the town, at a place where two narrow streets crossed each other and formed four corners. On one of the corners was an inn, and two ruddy-cheeked girls, with the queerest looking caps upon their heads, and dressed like peasant girls, came out from it as soon as the diligence stopped, opened the door of the coupé, and asked Mrs. Morelle and Florence if they would get out.

Mrs. Morelle did not understand a word that they said, but Grimkie, who was climbing down from his seat at the same time, interpreted the question by saying,

"They want to know if you would like to get out, Auntie," said he.

66

Would you get out, Grimkie ?" said Mrs. Morelle. "How long are we going to stop ?" Grimkie interpreted the question to the girls, and after hearing their reply he said to his aunt,

"About half an hour, they say. I would get out, Auntie. You can go into the inn, and so see what kind of inns they have in such a place as this."

So the two girls assisted Mrs. Morelle and Florence to descend from their places, and then conducted them into the house. It was a very ancient looking building, with a stone floor to the front entry, and a stone staircase, and a kitchen, with a great quantity of cooking going on, in full view from the entrance. Indeed the kitchen in many of these French inns is where the front parlor would be in an American country tavern.

One of the girls ushered the party up-stairs into what she called the salon, where a great table was set. There was a bright wood fire burning in the fireplace, and several very comfortable but extremely old-fashioned chairs in the room, and very strange looking pictures hanging upon the walls.

The girl, after seeing Mrs. Morelle comfortably seated at the fire, turned at the door before she went out, and said something in French.

"She asks," said Grimkie, "whether we wish for anything."

"That's a difficulty," said Mrs. Morelle. "We ought not to come in and sit by their fire

and put them to all this trouble without calling for anything, and there is not anything that wo

want."

"We will call for some bread and cheese and

some milk," said Grimkie.

"Ah, yes," said John; "that is just what I want a good drink of milk."

So Grimkie gave the order for some bread and cheese and some milk, and the girl went away.

In the mean time Florence and John had left the fire, and were walking about the room examining the strange and queer pictures which were hung upon the walls. They looked as if they had been hanging there a hundred years.

Although the whole appearance of the inn and of the room in which our party was sitting was extremely rude and primitive, the bread and cheese and the milk were all very nice, and even Mrs. Morelle, when she came to taste them, said that she was glad to have a luncheon. After finishing the luncheon, Grimkie rang a bell, and when the girl came again he paid her for what he had ordered, giving the girl also a few sous

over for herself.

Soon after this they were summoned to the diligence again, and they went down and took their seats. The streets were full of carts, donkeys, girls in the queerest dresses and with the

most singular shaped caps upon their heads, and peasant boys, some of whom were trundling wheelbarrows of very antique and clumsy shape. The streets were so narrow, too, that it was difficult for the diligence to make its way through and among all these groups without running over somebody; but at length with a great deal of blowing of the trumpet and cracking of the whip, the way was cleared and the passage was accomplished, the boys and girls in their wooden shoes clamping off and backing up as close as possible to the buildings on each side, as the wheels of the great vehicle went thundering by.

After leaving Coutances and entering the grand highway again, the attention of the whole party was soon attracted to the great number of people that they met on the road coming toward town.

"It must be market day in Coutances," said Grimkie, “and all these people are coming in to market."

Grimkie was right in supposing that it was market day, but the market, instead of being at Coutances, was really midway between Coutances and Granville, on a great plain, where a vast encampment had been formed, with tents to accommodate the buyers and sellers. It seemed to be chiefly a cattle fair, for the road for many

miles each way was filled with people driving home and taking home in carts and wagons great numbers of domestic animals of all kinds. There were teams of horses, and cows led by peasant girls, who held them by a rope attached to their horns, and little flocks of sheep, and pigs, some driven by a cord attached to one of their legs, and others carried in carts and wagons, and donkeys and mules, and every other sort of beast and bird ever seen in a farmyard.

It

was very curious to watch these different groups as the diligence made its way through

and among them along the grand highway. The curious dresses of the peasants, the extraordinary caps which the women and girls wore upon their heads, the strange fashions of the carts and country chaises-and the meek demeanor of the groups of animals that were led or driven along, altogether produced a series of spectacles of the

most

extraordinary kind.

Grimkie and John

from their lofty seat could see everything to great advantage. Mrs. Morelle and Florence could

see very

well too through the glass windows in

the front and on the sides of the coupé, for the driver's seat was up so high as to be but very little in the way. Mrs. Mcrelle said that it was quite fortunate for them that the fair happened to be held on the day of their journey.