CHAPTER IX.

A NORMAN HOUSEHOLD.


There were two paths in the village that were well worn. One was that
which led the village up into the fields. The other was the one that
led the tillers of the soil down into the village, to the door step of
the justice of the peace.

A good Norman is no Norman who has not a lawsuit on hand.

Anything will serve as a pretext for a quarrel No sum of money is so
small as not to warrant a breaking of the closest blood ties, if
thereby one's rights may be secured. Those beautiful stripes of rye,
barley, corn, and wheat up yonder in the fields, that melt into one
another like sea-tones--down here on the benches before the _juge de
paix_--what quarrels, what hatreds, what evil passions these few acres
of land have brought their owners, facing each other here like
so many demons, ready to spring at the others' throats! Brothers on
these benches forget they are brothers, and sisters that they have
suckled the same mother. Two more yards of the soil that should have
been Fillette's instead of Jeanne's, and the grave will enclose both
before the clenched fist of either is relaxed, and the last _sous_ in
the stocking will be spent before the war between their respective
lawyers will end.

Many and many were the tales told us of the domestic tragedies, born of