French or Italian canton would in like manner resort to a German
province. The third was Louis, a native, who spoke his own _patois_, and
found it sufficient for the expression of his ideas. He was chiefly
employed about the grounds; in-doors his use was mostly to mount the
peculiar clogs used for the purpose, and rub the waxed floors till they
shone. These floors were very handsome, of hard woods prettily inlaid;
and Louis produced an effect upon them that it seemed a pity to mar with
muddy shoes.

I do not speak of Alexis, the farmer, who appeared in domestic
exigencies; but my picture would be incomplete without the portrait of
Poppi. Poppi was the large house-dog, who in early life had intended to
call himself Puppy, but he naturally pronounced it with a French accent.
He was now far from young, but he was still Poppi. I believe he was the
more strictly domestic in his habits because an infirmity of temper had
betrayed him into an attack upon a neighbor, or a neighbor's dog, and it
was no longer safe for him to live much out-of-doors. The confinement
had softened his temper, but it had rendered him effeminate and
self-indulgent. He had, in fact, been spoiled by the boarders, and he
now expected to be present at meals, and to be fed with choice morsels
from their plates. As the cold weather came on he developed rheumatism,
and demanded our sympathy as well as our hospitality. If Elise in
waiting on table brushed him with her skirts, he set up a lamentable
cry, and rushed up to the nearest guest, and put his chin on the table
for his greater convenience in being comforted. At a dance which we had
one evening Poppi insisted upon being present, and in his efforts to
keep out of the way and in the apprehensions he suffered he abandoned
himself to moans and howls that sometimes drowned the piano.

Yet Poppi was an amiable invalid, and he was on terms of