it?"

"What the devil do I know about aristocrats!" said Lajeunesse.

"You're among the best of the land, now that Madelinette's married to the
Seigneur. You ought to wear a collar every day."

"Bah!" answered the blacksmith. "I'm only old Lajeunesse the
blacksmith, though she's my girl, dear lads. I was Joe Lajeunesse
yesterday, and I'll be Joe Lajeunesse to-morrow, and I'll die Joe
Lajeunesse the forgeron--bagosh! So you take me as you find me. M'sieu'
Racine doesn't marry me. And Madelinette doesn't take me to Paris and
lead me round the stage and say, 'This is M'sieu' Lajeunesse, my father.'
No. I'm myself, and a damn good blacksmith and nothing else am I"

"Tut, tut, old leather-belly," said Gingras the shoemaker, whose liquor
had mounted high, "you'll not need to work now. Madelinette's got double
fortune. She gets thousands for a song, and she's lady of the Manor
here. What's too good for you, tell me that, my forgeron?"

"Not working between meals--that's too good for me, Gingras. I'm here to
earn my bread with the hands I was born with, and to eat what they earn,
and live by it. Let a man live according to his gifts--bagosh! Till I'm
sent for, that's what I'll do; and when time's up I'll take my hand off
the bellows, and my leather apron can go to you, Gingras, for boots for a
bigger fool than me."

"There's only one," said Benolt, the ne'er-do-weel, who had been to
college as a boy.