“Do not wear out your shoes on the hard roads;
Rather take boat and so descend the Rhône.
“Leave Lyon and Valence behind;
Salute them with a nod as you pass beneath their bridges.
“Avignon is the queen,—but pass her by as well;
Not till you come to Arles will you find your love——
“The plain is fair and broad, O comrade,——
Take your love en croupe, and off you go!”
[2] “On the bridge of Avignon every one must pay toll.”
[3] The name Vincent is pronounced very much like vingt cent, twenty hundred, or two thousand.
[4] “May this work of mine, begun in God’s name, be constantly blessed with the favor of Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit wisely guide my hand, my pen, and my understanding.”
[5] What would the good curé have said had he been told that a contemporary poet, Monsieur Pierre Gauthiez, has adopted the too common error? According to him, an Egyptian Marie came to Camargue in the boat with the saints.—When they approached the shore, it became necessary to reward the devoted boatman who had helped them to accomplish the prodigious journey. One of them gave him a sprig of rosemary that had touched the lips of the Christ; another, a lock of her fair hair. And as to the third—