the farm and dined together.

Little Marie tended her three sheep on the common land, and Germain
turned up the ground as if there were nothing in the air.

On the day before that fixed for the marriage, about two o'clock in the
afternoon, the musicians arrived, that is to say, the bagpipers and
viol-players, with their instruments decorated with long floating
ribbons, and playing a march written for the occasion, in a measure
somewhat slow for the feet of any but natives, but perfectly adapted to
the nature of the heavy ground and the hilly roads of that region.
Pistol-shots, fired by youths and children, announced the beginning of
the ceremony. The guests assembled one by one and danced on the
greensward in front of the house, for practice. When night had come,
they began to make strange preparations: they separated into two
parties, and when it was quite dark, they proceeded to the ceremony of
the _livrées_.

That ceremony was performed at the home of the fiancée, La Guillette's
cabin. La Guillette took with her her daughter, a dozen or more young
and pretty shepherdesses, her daughter's friends or relations, two or
three respectable matrons, neighbors with well-oiled tongues, quick at
retort, and unyielding observers of the ancient customs. Then she
selected a dozen sturdy champions, her relations and friends; and,
lastly, the old _hemp-beater_ of the parish, a fine and fluent talker,
if ever there was one.

The rôle played in Bretagne by the _bazvalan_, or village tailor, is
assumed in our country districts by the hemp-beater or the wool-carder,
the two professions being often united in a single person. He attends