e IPrisoncrs.

FroM ToE IFRENCH OF

HIERIS was no sound m the forest except the slight rustle of the snow as it fcll upon the trces. It had been falling, small and fine, since mid-day ; it powdered the branches with a frosty moss, cast a silver veil over the dead leaves in the hollow, and spread upon the pathways a great, soft, white carpet that thickened the immeasurable silence amid this ocean of trees.

Before the door of the keeper’s lodge stood a bare-armed young woman, chopping wood with an axc upon a stone. She was tall, thin and strong daughter and wifc of game- keepers.

Avoice called from within the house : “ Come in, Berthine; we arc alone to- night, and it 1s cetting dark. There may be Prussians or wolves about.”

She who was chopping wood replicd by split ting another block; her bosom rosc and fell —with. the hecavy blows, cach time she lifted her arm.

“I havefinish- cd, mother. I'm here, I'm here. There’s nothing to be frightened at ; 1t 1sn’t dark yet.” ~Then she brought 1 her fagots and her

a child of the forest, a

logs, and Pfled i COMIE IN, BERTHINE,”

Guy DE MAUPASSANT.

them up at the chimney-side, went out again to closc the shutters——cnormous shutters of solid oak—and then, when she again camce in, pushed the heavy bolts of the door.

Her mother was spinning by the fire, a wrinkled old woman who had grown timorous with age.

“TI don’t like father to be out,” said she, “T'wo women have no strength.”

The younger answered: “Oh, I could very well kill a wolf or a Prussian, I can tell you.” And she turned her eyes to a large revolver, hanging over the fire-place. Her husband had been put into the army at the beginning of the Prussian invasion, and the two women had remained alone with her father, the old game- keeper, Nicho- las ’ichou, who had obstinately refused to leave his home and go into the town.

The nearest townwasRethel, an old fortress perched on a rock. It was a patriotic place, B ~and the towns- i R - - people had re- ' solved to resist the mvaders, to closc their gates and stand a siege, according to the traditions of the city. Twice Dbefore, ~under Henry IV. and under Louis XTIV, the inhabitants of Rethel had won faine by heroic defences. They would do the