The Christmas kalends of Provence and some other . urt to w^hich accessis had by a vaulted passage-wa3^ that onoccasion may be closed by a double set ofancient iron-clamped doors. As the few ex-terior windows of the farm-house are gratedheavily, and as from each of the rear cornersof the square there projects a crusty tourellefrom which a raking fire could be kept upalong the walls, the place has quite the air ofa testy little fortress—and a fortress it wasmeant to be when it was built three hundredyears and more ago (the date, 1561, is carvedon the keystone of the arched entrance) inthe time
The Christmas kalends of Provence and some other . urt to w^hich accessis had by a vaulted passage-wa3^ that onoccasion may be closed by a double set ofancient iron-clamped doors. As the few ex-terior windows of the farm-house are gratedheavily, and as from each of the rear cornersof the square there projects a crusty tourellefrom which a raking fire could be kept upalong the walls, the place has quite the air ofa testy little fortress—and a fortress it wasmeant to be when it was built three hundredyears and more ago (the date, 1561, is carvedon the keystone of the arched entrance) inthe time of the religious wars. But now the iron-clamped doors stand openon rusty hinges, and the court-yard has thatlook of placid cheerfulness which goes withthe varied peaceful activities of farm labourand farm life. Chickens and ducks wanderabout it chattering complacently, an agedgoat of a melancholy humour stands usuallyin one corner lost in misanthropic thought,and a great flock of extraordinarily tamepigeons flutters back and forth between the 6. AT THE WELL Cbc ebristmas Kaunas of Prooettce stone dove-cote rising in a square tower abovethe farm-house and the farm well. This well—enclosed in a stone well-housesurmounted by a very ancient crucifix—isin the centre of the court-yard, and it also isthe centre of a little domestic world. To itskerb come the farm animals three times daily;while as frequently, though less regularly,most of the members of the two householdscome there too; and there do the humans—notably, I have observed, if they be of differ-ent sexes—find it convenient to rest for awhile together and take a dish of friendlytalk. From the low-toned chattering and thesoft laughter that I have heard now^ and thenof an evening I have inferred that thesenominally chance encounters are not confinedw^holly to the day. By simple machinery (of which the motive-power is an aged patient horse, who is startedand left then to his own devices; and whoworks quite honestly,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1902
