is an empty desert: my day yesterday is a proof of this; I spent it with
my own people, and that, of course, was a great pleasure to me; but how
did I spend it? In continual eating, so that when I wanted to work I
could do nothing worth doing. Full of indolence and slackness, I dragged
myself into the company of two or three sets of people, and came from
them in the same state of mind as I went to them."

Far these expeditions Sand made use of a little chestnut horse which
belonged to his brother, and of which he was very fond. This little
horse had been bought with great difficulty; for, as we have said, the
whole family was poor. The following note, in relation to the animal,
will give an idea of Sand's simplicity of heart:--

"19th April "To-day I have been very happy at the ironworks, and very
industrious beside my kind mother. In the evening I came home on the
little chestnut. Since the day before yesterday, when he got a strain
and hurt his foot, he has been very restive and very touchy, and when he
got home he refused his food. I thought at first that he did not fancy
his fodder, and gave him some pieces of sugar and sticks of cinnamon,
which he likes very much; he tasted them, but would not eat them. The
poor little beast seems to have same other internal indisposition besides
his injured foot. If by ill luck he were to become foundered or ill,
everybody, even my parents, would throw the blame on me, and yet I have
been very careful and considerate of him. My God, my Lord, Thou who canst
do things both great and small, remove from me this misfortune, and let
him recover as quickly as possible. If, however, Thou host willed
otherwise, and if this fresh trouble is to fall upon us, I will try to
bear it with courage, and as the expiation of same sin. Meanwhile, O my
Gad, I leave this matter in Thy hands, as I leave my life and my soul."