The athletic bearing of the trees, each carrying its leafy mountain, pleased the mind like so many statues; and the lines of the trunk led the eye admiringly upward to where the extreme leaves sparkled in a patch of azure.

Squirrels leaped in mid air.

It was a proper spot for a devotee of the goddess Hygieia.
'Have you been to Franchard, Jean-Marie ?' inquired the Doctor.

'I fancy not.' 'Never,' replied the boy.
'It is ruin in a gorge,' continued Desprez, adopting his expository voice; 'the ruin of a hermitage and chapel.

History tells us much of Franchard; how the recluse was often slain by robbers; how he lived on a most insufficient diet; how he was expected to pass his days in prayer.