FOOTNOTES:
[1] The old rates of exchange are used in this book.
[2] Our honey-dew melon is a mild approach to it.
[3] The reader is reminded that this was in a day when few cars cranked otherwise than by hand.
[4] Written in 1913. Mistral died March 24th of the following year.
[5] Daudet in his Lettres de Mon Moulin says:
"II y à quatre ans, lorsque l'Académie donna à l'auteur de 'Mireille' le prix de trois mille francs. Mme. Mistral [sa mère] eut une idée.
"'Si nous faisons tapisser et plafonner ta chambre?' dit elle à son fils.
"'Non! non!' répondit Mistral. 'Ca c'est l'argent des poëtes, on n'y touche pas.'"
[6] The word arena derives its name from the sand, strewn to absorb the blood.
[7] Alphonse Daudet's "La Mule de Pape," in his Lettres de Mon Moulin, gives a delightful picture of Avignon at this period.
[8] At Mark Twain's death his various literary effects passed into the hands of his biographer, the present writer.
[9] In 1913-14. The rate to-day is somewhat higher.
[10] I have thought since that she may have meant that the Swiss do not lead the world in the art and literary industries. She may have connected those things with intelligence—you never can tell.
[11] When the call to arms came, August 1, 1914, Switzerland put 250,000 men on her frontier in twenty-four hours.
[12] Written at the Anchor Inn, Ouchy, Lausanne, in 1817.
[13] "La Diligence de Baucoire" in Lettre de Mon Moulin, Alphonse Daudet.
[14] It was oftener from sixteen to eighteen francs, but the time when we stopped at larger towns, like Le Puy, Lyons, and Valence, brought up the average. These are antewar prices. I am told there is about a 50-per-cent increase (on the dollar basis) to-day. The value of the French franc is no longer a fixed quantity.
[15] The reader must continue to bear in mind that this was in a golden age. The cost would probably be nearer 150 francs to-day (1921), or $12 American money. Even so, it would be cheaper than staying at home, in America.
[16] Tours during the World War became a great training camp, familiar to thousands of American soldiers.
[17] She lived six years longer, dying in 1920.