"What is your pleasure with me, sir?" asked the charcoal burner, taking off his woollen cap.
"First, to wish you a good evening, Monsieur Gervais; and next, to apologize for my visit."
"Is there anything you wish to say in private?"
"Nothing very important; but——"
"These boys are in your way?"
"Oh, pray do not let me interrupt you! My business here is not of sufficient consequence."
"We have done, sir. Indeed, our evening studies, and more particularly our Scripture readings, have been prolonged rather beyond our usual hour. We have only one more duty to fulfil, which we never omit. You will excuse it, sir."
Without waiting for a reply, Gervais assumed a serious air. The boys knelt down before the wooden bench on which they had been sitting. Alfred, and even the guide, followed their example, and the woodman offered up a brief, but solemn evening prayer; after which he pressed affectionately the hands of the young herdsmen, and dismissed them with a kind remembrance to their employers.
"Good-night, Monsieur Gervais!" said the boys cheerfully, and in an instant they were all leaping up the heights beyond the fir trees, which soon hid them from the sight of those who remained behind.
"I expected to find you alone, Monsieur Gervais," said Alfred, "and I wished to put a question to you which is now very plainly answered by the scene I have just witnessed. Two hours ago, I was with a party of friends in the plain below, at some distance from this mountain. At nightfall, when we saw the light of your furnace beginning to shine, we said among ourselves, as we looked, with no small degree of interest, upon this earthly star, as it seemed to us, 'What can the man be doing who is watching by the side of this fire?' You see, sir, that I am young, and you know that, at my age, good-humoured frolics are not uncommon. 'I will soon know,' I said. Well, I mounted my horse immediately, and rode at full speed to the foot of the mountain. And now that I am here, I find that I have reason to rejoice in my freak, Monsieur Gervais, since it has made me the witness of a most interesting scene. These pens and paper, and these books—this one in particular—afford sufficient evidence of the manner in which you have passed the evening. Here, to my surprise, I have found, at this late hour, in the deep recesses of the woods, on a wild and lofty mountain, a school for useful learning in general, but more especially, as the closing of the scene has informed me, for the most important of all knowledge—that of the Creator who made, of the Son who redeemed, and of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us. You pass your evenings in pointing out to these boys, who might otherwise be running wild along the mountains and through the forests, like the beasts that perish, the only way that leads to everlasting life. May I ask if you have any particular interest in them? Are they your children, or are they employed by you in your business?"