"See how it slips down; it goes like a sunbeam into the stomach." "But I ought to be carrying the milk to Mademoiselle Gaillard," cried Genevieve; "and it is all spilt! Nicolas frightened me so!" "Don't you like Nicolas ?" "No," answered Genevieve.

"Why does he persecute me?
He can get plenty other girls, who are willing." "But if he likes you better than all the other girls in the valley--" "So much the worse for him." "I see you don't know him," answered Catherine, as she seized the girl rapidly by the waist and flung her on the grass, holding her down in that position with her strong arms.

At this moment Nicolas appeared.
Seeing her odious persecutor, the child screamed with all her might, and drove him five feet away with a violent kick in the stomach; then she twisted herself like an acrobat, with a dexterity for which Catherine was not prepared, and rose to run away.

Catherine, still on the ground, caught her by one foot and threw her headlong on her face.

This frightful fall stopped the brave child's cries for a moment.