And  truly  it  was  a  strange  sight  to  see  the
mixture  of  look,  expression,  accent,  and
costume,  that  came  to  the  rendezvous  :  the
long- featured  boy,  with  blue  eyes"  and
pointed  chin — cofd,  wary,  and  suspicious —
brave,  but  cautious,  that  came  from  Nor-
mandy ;  the  high-spirited,  reckless  youth,
from  Brittany  ;  the  dark-eyed  girl  of  Pro-
vence ;  the  quick-tempered,  warm-hearted
Gascon  ;  and,  stranger  than  all,  from  his
contrast  to  the  rest,  the  little  Parisian,
with  his  airs  of  the  capital,  and  his  con-
tempt for  his  rustic  brethren,  nothing
daunted  that  in  all  their  boyish  exercises
he  found  himself  so  much  their  inferior.
Our  dear  old  uncle  loved  nothing  so  well  as
to  have  us  around  him,  and  even  the  little
ones,  of  five  and  six  years  old,  when  not
living  too  far  off,  were  brought  to  these
reunions,  which  were  to  us  the  great  events
of  each  year  of  our  lives.
