During the vacation that followed, our departure for the south and the mountains enchanted¹ me more than did my first trip there.  
As in the preceding summer we started, my sister and I, at the beginning of August. While it was no longer a journey of adventure, the pleasure of returning and again finding there all the things that had formerly² so delighted me surpassed the charm of going forth³ to meet the unknown.
 
Between the point where the railroad ended and the village in which our cousins lived, in the course of the long carriage ride, our little coachman, in venturing to take what he supposed a short cut, lost his way, and he carried us into the most exquisite⁴ forest nooks. The weather was beautiful and radiant. With what joy I saluted⁵ the first peasant women whom I saw walking along with great copper⁶ water-jars upon their heads, and the first swarthy peasants conversing⁷ in the well remembered dialect, how I rejoiced when we rolled along over the blood-colored roads, and when the mountains junipers came into view.
 
At about noon-time we stopped in a shady valley in a sequestered⁸ village called Veyrac to rest our horses, and we seated ourselves at the foot of a chestnut⁹ tree. There we were attacked by the ducks of the place, the boldest and most ill bred in the world. They flocked around us in an unseemly manner, uttering shrill¹⁰ cries and quacking¹¹ hideously¹². As we departed, even after we were in our carriage, these infuriated creatures followed us; whereupon my sister turned towards them, and with all the dignity of an old-time traveller outraged¹³ by an inhospitable population exclaimed: “Ducks of Veyrac, be ye accursed!” And for several years I could not keep a straight face when I remembered the foolish and prolonged laughter that I indulged in at the time. Above all I cannot think of that day without regretting the resplendence of the sun and the blue sky, a resplendence that I never see now.
 
As we drew near we were met on our way at the bridge spanning the river, by our cousins and the Peyrals. I discovered with pleasure that my little band was complete. We had all grown taller by several inches; but we found immediately tha............