their surroundings. I have never made idyllic pictures of my people; I

have taken them at their just worth--as poor peasants, neither wholly
good nor wholly bad, whose constant toil never allows them to indulge

in emotion, though they can feel acutely at times. Above all things,
in fact, I clearly understood that I should do nothing with them

except through an appeal to their selfish interests, and by schemes
for their immediate well-being. The peasants are one and all the sons

of St. Thomas, the doubting apostle--they always like words to be
supported by visible facts.

"Perhaps you will laugh at my first start, sir," the doctor went on
after a pause. "I began my difficult enterprise by introducing the

manufacture of baskets. The poor folks used to buy the wicker mats on
which they drain their cheeses, and all the baskets needed for the

insignificant trade of the district. I suggested to an intelligent
young fellow that he might take a lease on a good-sized piece of land

by the side of the torrent. Every year the floods deposited a rich
alluvial soil on this spot, where there should be no difficulty in

growing osiers. I reckoned out the quantity of wicker-work of various
kinds required from time to time by the canton, and went over to

Grenoble, where I found a young craftsman, a clever worker, but
without any capital. When I had discovered him, I soon made up my mind

to set him up in business here. I undertake的过去式">undertook to advance the money for
the osiers required for his work until my osier-farmer should be in a

position to supply him. I induced him to sell his baskets at rather
lower prices than they asked for them in Grenoble, while, at the same

time, they were better made. He entered into my views completely. The
osier-beds and the basket-making were two business speculations whose

results were only appreciated after a lapse of four years. Of course,
you know that osiers must be three years old before they are fit to

cut.
"At the commencement of operations, the basket-maker was boarded and

lodged gratuitously. Before very long he married a woman from Saint
Laurent du Pont, who had a little money. Then he had a house built, in

a healthy and very airy situation which I chose, and my advice was
followed as to the internal arrangements. Here was a triumph! I had

created a new industry, and had brought a producer and several workers
into the town. I wonder if you will regard my elations as childish?

"For the first few days after my basket-maker had set up his business,
I never went past his shop but my heart beat somewhat faster. And when

I saw the newly-built house, with the green-painted shutters, the vine
beside the doorway, and the bench and bundles of osiers before it;

when I saw a tidy, neatly-dressed woman within it, nursing a plump,
pink and white baby among the workmen, who were singing merrily and

busily plaiting their wicker-work under the superintendence of a man
who but lately had looked so pinched and pale, but now had an

atmosphere of prosperity about him; when I saw all this, I confess
that I could not forego the pleasure of turning basket-maker for a

moment, of going into the shop to hear how things went with them, and
of giving myself up to a feeling of content that I cannot express in

words, for I had all their happiness as well as my own to make me
glad. All my hopes became centered on this house, where the man dwelt

who had been the first to put a steady faith in me. Like the basket-
maker's wife, clasping her first nursling to her breast, did not I

already fondlycherish the hopes of the future of this poor district?
"I had to do so many things at once," he went on, "I came into

collision with other people's notions, and met with violent
opposition, fomented by the ignorant mayor to whose office I had

succeeded, and whose influence had dwindled away as mine increased. I
determined to make him my deputy and a confederate in my schemes of

benevolence. Yes, in the first place, I endeavored to instil
enlightened ideas into the densest of all heads. Through his self-love

and cupidity I gained a hold upon my man. During six months as we
dined together, I took him deeply into my confidence about my

projected improvements. Many people would think this intimacy one of
the most painful inflictions in the course of my task; but was he not

a tool of the most valuable kind? Woe to him who despises his axe, or
flings it carelessly aside! Would it not have been very inconsistent,

moreover, if I, who wished to improve a district, had shrunk back at
the thought of improving one man in it?

"A road was our first and most pressing need in bringing about a
better state of things. If we could obtainpermission from the

Municipal Council to make a hard road, so as to put us in
communication with the highway to Grenoble, the deputy-mayor would be

the first gainer by it; for instead of dragging his timber over rough
tracks at a great expense, a good road through the canton would enable

him to transport it more easily, and to engage in a traffic on a large
scale, in all kinds of wood, that would bring in money--not a

miserable six hundred francs a year, but handsome sums which would
mean a certain fortune for him some day. Convinced at last, he became

my proselytizer.
"Through the whole of one winter the ex-mayor got into the way of

explaining to our citizens that a good road for wheeled traffic would
be a source of wealth to the whole country round, for it would enable

every one to do a trade with Grenoble; he held forth on this head at
the tavern while drinking with his intimates. When the Municipal

Council had authorized the making of the road, I went to the prefect
and obtained some money from the charitable funds at the disposal of

the department, in order to pay for the hire of carts, for the Commune
was unable to undertake the transport of road metal for lack of

wheeled conveyances. The ignorant began to murmur against me, and to
say that I wanted to bring the days of the corvee back again; this

made me anxious to finish this important work, that they might
speedily appreciate its benefits. With this end in view, every Sunday

during my first year of office I drew the whole population of the
township, willing or unwilling, up on to the mountain, where I myself

had traced out on a hard bottom the road between our village and the
highway to Grenoble. Materials for making it were fortunately to be

had in plenty along the site.
"The tediousenterprise called for a great deal of patience on my

part. Some who were ignorant of the law would refuse at times to give
their contribution of labor; others again, who had not bread to eat,

really could not afford to lose a day. Corn had to be distributed
among these last, and the others must be soothed with friendly words.

Yet by the time we had finished two-thirds of the road, which in all
is about two leagues in length, the people had so thoroughly

recognized its advantages that the remaining third was accomplished
with a spirit that surprised me. I added to the future wealth of the

Commune by planting a double row of poplars along the ditch on either
side of the way. The trees are already almost worth a fortune, and

they make our road look like a king's highway. It is almost always
dry, by reason of its position, and it was so well made that the

annual cost of maintaining it is a bare two hundred francs. I must
show it to you, for you cannot have seen it; you must have come by the

picturesque way along the valley bottom, a road which the people
decided to make for themselves three years later, so as to connect the

various farms that were made there at that time. In three years ideas
had rooted themselves in the common sense of this township, hitherto

so lacking in intelligence that a passing traveler would perhaps have
thought it hopeless to attempt to instil them. But to continue.

"The establishment of the basket-maker was an example set before these
poverty-stricken folk that they might profit by it. And if the road

was to be a direct cause of the future wealth of the canton, all the
primary forms of industry must be stimulated, or these two germs of a

better state of things would come to nothing. My own work went forward
by slow degrees, as I helped my osier farmer and wicker-worker and saw

to the making of the road.
"I had two horses, and the timber merchant, the deputy-mayor, had

three. He could only have them shod whenever he went over to Grenoble,
so I induced a farrier to take up his abode here, and undertake的过去式">undertook to

find him plenty of work. On the same day I met with a discharged
soldier, who had nothing but his pension of a hundred francs, and was

sufficiently perplexed about his future. He could read and write, so I