minutes later the little widow, the hat in her hand, entered the domicile
of its maker and astonished the woman by ordering a hat for her own use,
promising five dollars if the work was done to her satisfaction. The
palmetto was to be split into the finest possible strips and platted into
the form furnished by Madame Tonton. It was done; and on Sunday the hat,
trimmed with roses and ribbons, made its appearance in the church of St.
Martin, on the prettiest head in the world. The next Sunday you could see
as many hats as the hatmaker had had time to make, and before the end of
the month all the women in St. Martinville were wearing palmetto hats.
To-day the modistes were furnishing them at the fabulous price of
twenty-five dollars,--trimmed, you understand,--and palmetto hats were
really getting to be a branch of the commerce of the little city; but
ours, thanks to Alix's flowers and ribbons, cost but ten dollars.

The church was crowded. The service, performed by an old priest nearly a
hundred years of age, was listened to with interest; but what astonished
me was to see the crowd stop at the church door, the women kissing; to
hear laughter, chat, and criticism at the door of this sacred place as if
it were the public square. I understood the discontent that knit my
father's brows and the alacrity with which he descended the church steps.
Tonton saw and came to us--so fresh, so young, she was indeed the queen of
beauty and fashion. Out of nothing Tonton could work wonders. Her dress
to-day was of camayeu the pattern of which was bunches of
strawberries--the very same stuff as our dresses; but how had she made it
to look so different? And her hat! It was a new marvel of her invention.
She had taken a man's felt hat and entirely covered it with the feathers
of the cardinal bird, without other ornament than a bunch of white ribbon
on the front and two long cords of white silk falling clear to the waist.
That was the first hat of the kind I ever saw, but it was not the last.
With one turn of her little hand she could make the whole female