CHAPTER LXVII.
During the vacation that followed, our departure for the south and the
mountains enchanted me more than did my first trip there.
As in the preceding summer we started, my sister and I, at the
beginning of August. While it was no longer a journey of adventure,
the pleasure of returning and again finding there all the things that
had formerly so delighted me surpassed the charm of going forth to
meet the unknown.
Between the point where the railroad ended and the village in which
our cousins lived, in the course of the long carriage ride, our little
coachman, in venturing to take what he supposed a short cut, lost his
way, and he carried us into the most exquisite forest nooks. The
weather was beautiful and radiant. With what joy I saluted the first
peasant women whom I saw walking along with great copper water-jars
upon their heads, and the first swarthy peasants conversing in the
well remembered dialect, how I rejoiced when we rolled along over the
blood-colored roads, and when the mountains junipers came into view.
At about noon-time we stopped in a shady valley in a sequestered
village called Veyrac to rest our horses, and we seated ourselves at
the foot of a chestnut tree. There we were attacked by the ducks of
the place, the boldest and most ill bred in the world. They flocked
around us in an unseemly manner, uttering shrill cries and quacking
hideously. As we departed, even after we were in our carriage, these
infuriated creatures followed us; whereupon my sister turned towards
them, and with all the dignity of an old-time traveller outraged by an
inhospitable population exclaimed: "Ducks of Veyrac, be ye accursed!"
And for several years I could not keep a straight face when I
remembered the foolish and prolonged laughter that I indulged in at
the time. Above all I cannot think of that day without regretting the
resplendence of the sun and the blue sky, a resplendence that I never
see now.
As we drew near we were met on our way at the bridge spanning the
river, by our cousins and the Peyrals. I discovered with pleasure that
my little band was complete. We had all grown taller by several
inches; but we found immediately that we were not otherwise changed,
we were still children ready for the same childish games.
At night-fall there was a terrific storm. And while the thunder boomed
around us as if it was bombarding the roof of my uncle's house, and
when all the old stone gargoyles in the village were pouring forth
torrents of water that rushed tumultuously over the black pebbles in
the street, we took refuge, the little Peyrals and I, in the kitchen,
and there we made a racket and joyously danced around in a ring.
It was a very large kitchen, furnished in an old-fashioned way with a
perfect arsenal of burnished copper utensils; every variety of pan and
kettle, shining like pieces of armor, hung on the halls in the order
of their size. It was almost dark, and from the moist earth came the
fresh odor one usually smells after a storm, after a summer rain; and
through the thick iron-barred Louis XIII windows the lurid, green
lightning flashed incessantly and blinded us and compelled us, in
spite of ourselves, to close our eyes. We turned round and round like
mad beings, and sang together: "The star of night whose peaceful
light." . . . It was a sentimental song, never intended for dance
music, but we scanned it drolly and mockingly, and thus made of it an
accommodating and tuneful dance measure. We continued our joyous sport
for I do not know how long a time; we were excited by the noise of the
storm and we whirled around like little dervishes; it was a merry-
making in celebration of my return; it was a fitting way of
inaugurating the holidays; it was a defiance to the Big Ape, and it
was an appropriate prologue to the series of expeditions and childish
sports of every kind that were to recommence, with more ardor than
ever, the next day.
