pother, seemed a very venial offense compared with my attempt to lead
the singing. Nevertheless, when the concert was over, not a word was
said on the subject by any one, though I had quite expected to be taken
at once to the magisterial chamber to hear some dreadful sentence passed
on me; and when, before retiring, anxious to propitiate my host, I began
to express regret for having inflicted pain on them by attempting to
sing, the venerable gentleman raised his hands deprecatingly, and begged
me to say no more about it, for painful subjects were best forgotten.
"No doubt," he kindly added, "when you were lying there buried among the
hills, you swallowed a large amount of earth and gravel in your efforts
to breathe, and have not yet freed your lungs from it."

This was the most charitable view he could take of the matter, and I was
thankful that no worse result followed.






Chapter 10

At length the joyful day arrived when I was to cease, in outward
appearance at all events, to be an alien; for returning at noon from the
fields, on entering my cell I beheld my beautiful new garments--two
complete suits, besides underwear: one, the most soberly colored,
intended only for working hours; but the second, which was for the
house, claimed my first attention. Trembling with eagerness, I flung off
the old tweeds, the cracked boots, and other vestiges of a civilization
which they had perhaps survived, and soon found that I had been measured