A NORMANDY JOKE


The procession came in sight in the hollow road which was shaded by tall
trees which grew on the slopes of the farms. The newly married couple
came first, then the relations, then the invited guests, and lastly the
poor of the neighborhood, while the village urchins, who hovered about
the narrow road like flies, ran in and out of the ranks, or climbed onto
the tree to see it better.

The bridegroom was a good looking young fellow, Jean Patu, the richest
farmer in the neighborhood, but he was, above all things, an ardent
sportsman who seemed to lose all common sense in order to satisfy that
passion, and who spent large sums on his dogs, his keepers, his ferrets
and his guns. The bride, Rosalie Roussel, had been courted by all the
likely young fellows in the district, for they all thought her
prepossessing, and they knew that she would have a good dowry, but she
had chosen Patu, partly, perhaps, because she liked him better than she
did the others, but still more, like a careful Normandy girl, because he
had more crown pieces.

When they went in at the white gateway of the husband's farm, forty
shots resounded without their seeing those who fired, as they were
hidden in the ditches, and the noise seemed to please the men, who were
sprawling about heavily in their best clothes, very much; and Patu left
his wife, and running up to a farm servant whom he perceived behind a
tree, he seized his gun and fired a shot himself, kicking his heels
about like a colt. Then they went on, beneath the apple-trees which