forget the amusements of the town for a short time. The vintage was getting in, and that is the time when merriment and pleasure display themselves in the most natural and charming manner.
The necessary preparations were made, at the country seat of my friend, solemnly to celebrate every day of that general rejoicing. The two most virtuous girls of the village were publicly presented in the church with a garland of white roses, and received a very liberal dowry. Their beauty was, indeed, not equal to their virtue; yet they received that reward with such a grace, and so much modest innocence, that every one was convinced, beyond contradiction, that they deserved having been selected from the rest of their sisters. This enchanting harmony between gracefulness and virtue is generally no where to be met with in that high degree as among the French peasantry.
No one could deny that all his softer feelings were completely gratified amongthat
