approach, and he is watching for my coming - as tenderly as though I were
a returning prodigal and he charged with my welcoming home. Close under
the frowning battlements of Dieppe Castle - a once wellnigh impregnable
fortress that was some time in possession of the English - romantically
nestles Mr. Parldnson's studio, and that genial gentleman promptly
proposes accompanying me some distance into the country. On our way
through Dieppe I notice blue-bloused peasants guiding small flocks of
goats through the streets, calling them along with a peculiar, tuneful
instrument that sounds somewhat similar to a bagpipe. I learn that they
are Normandy peasants, who keep their flocks around town all summer,
goat's milk being considered beneficial for infants and invalids. They
lead the goats from house to house, and milk whatever quantity their
customers want at their own door - a custom that we can readily understand
will never become widely popular among AngloSaxon milkmen, since it
leaves no possible chance for pump-handle combinations and corresponding
profits. The morning is glorious with sunshine and the carols of feathered
songsters as together we speed away down the beautiful Arques Valley,
over roads that are simply perfect for wheeling; and, upon arriving at
the picturesque ruins of the Chateau d'Arques, we halt and take a casual
peep at the crumbling walls of this of the famous fortress, which the
trailing ivy of Normandy now partially covers with a dark-green mantle
of charity, as though its purpose and its mission were to hide its fallen
grandeur from the rude gaze of the passing stranger. All along the roads
we meet happy-looking peasants driving into Dieppe market with produce.
They are driving Normandy horses - and that means fine, large, spirited
animals - which, being unfamiliar with bicycles, almost invariably take
exception to ours, prancing about after the usual manner of high-strung
steeds. Unlike his English relative, the Norman horse looks not supinely
upon the whirling wheel, but arrays himself almost unanimously against
us, and umially in the most uncompromising manner, similar to the phantom-