The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-07-22
Clairette, or the Husband Hunter.
GAsCoN sTORY-TRANsLATED FROM THE
FRENCH.

A GAsCoN sToRy-TRANsLATED FROM THE
FRENCH.
Clairette lost her father and her mother
when she was but thirteen years of age
She was good naturcd girl but had rather
a Eighty head, and always looked at things
upon the surface, and took very little pains
to get at the sense which lay beneath them.
She accordingly allowed her uncle and
guardian to neglect her property, paying
no attention to it; and liked better to fire.
quent fairs, markets, the festivals OF
patron saints, and to enjoy Sunday amuse-
ments, rather than to hoe in her fields,
spade up her garden, and lead her sheep to
the pasturage. Clairette was by no means
indolent or inactive; she would pass an hour
every morning dressing herself, and two
more during the day smoothing her ribbons,
doing up her scarfs, and putting away her
skirts. After this came walk here and a
promenade there, so that the poor child
had not a moment to spare. To make
amends she had several nice companions
how many one has at her age! The child
seems to make stores OF friends, and all
the more because at every step it takes in
the world it is sure to lose one. A dozen
young girls had attended school and made
their first communion with Clairette.-
After this important act, which brings US
| Of inf ,;ol T.,
us our place in the great workshop here
below, each was allotted her task in the
family. Marghelide did sewing during the
day and spun in the evening; Biebe looked
after the house and carried out meals to
the field hands; Lixandrine took the sheep
and the cows to pasture.
Clairette, alone, as idle as little savage
she called this liberty-was proud of her
independence, and pitied her poor compan-
ions who gave themselves SO much trouble
in the world. "Of what use is it? Is
Biebe's Sunday dress any the better for
plodding along muddy paths strewn with
briers? Has Lixandrine finer complex
ion for getting tanned in scorching sum-
mer sun, tending her COWS? %
| The time came, however, when, in spite
of her pride in her half-v agabond life,
| Clarette was less ambitious Of indepen-
dence, and felt disposed to come under the
dominion of husband. This very natural
desire, but still a vague one at eighteen,
besides being subject to circumstances,
| became imperious, like the satisfaction of
honor, when Clairette returned from the
wedding of Margheide with the tailor
| Latane.
Marghelide was the younger. By what
inexplicable grace of St. Joseph, the patron
of spouses, should she take the lead of her
associates? She was assuredly less pretty
| than Clairette, and likewise less amiable-
who would dispute that? What charm
had given her the preference in the eyes of
the brisk young Latane?
All, here it is! Marghelide wore splen-
did red petticoat as brilliant as pop
Ply, and which scared away the CATTLE
| but which produced quite different eff
feet on all the young men; the color of
this lucky petticoat relieved so sharply on
the green of the meadows and the gray of
the brambles as to be very easily seen half
| a league off. Latane, completely bewil-
dered, must have run for the petticoat the
same as lot of frogs after the bated hook
on the end of fish line.
Woman is naturally disposed to regard
her toilet as a sort of talisman, and not
alone the city dame, but the simplest young
girl of the fields. 1t suffices to wear pet
| ticoat to possess an instinct for colors and
calicoes. Charlotte had it in the highest
degree; she was sure that she had discov-
cred Marghelide's secret; she ran off to sell
six of her sheep, and bought the deepest
scarlet petticoat she could find in the mar
| ket.
From that day forth, Clairette never
went to the spring, to church, to ball, or
to fair without wearing the attractive
garment in which the lucky Marghelide
had captured the tailor Latane.
In vain, however, did she glide through
the crowd and thus display herself. The
women found her tawdry, the young girls
looked envious, while the young men po-
litely invited her to dance; but no mother
ever dreampt of selecting her as wife for
her son, and no son ever uttered a word
about taking her for a housekeeper.
| A year of fruitless efforts had passed and
not a whisper of proposal of marriage
What bad luck Sood her friend Biebe
followed the same delightful road as Marg-
helide, and espoused the farmer Menichot.
Clairette became respondent. She had
lost fifteen months in displaying her red
petticoat, and she could not imagine the
cause Of her failure. Was Biebe, then, the
more charming? Nobody would dare
MAINTAIN that falsehood. 1t was sufficient
to see them alongside of each other at a
dance. Clairette always had thirty part
ners more than her rival. Was she more
entertaining? Biebe could not put togeth-
er two consecutive ideas, and when her
beaux spoke to her, she answered only with
downcast eyes. 81 have it, said Clairette
1
medtating, and eager to know the cause
of her disgrace. "Biebe wears distatf
at her side constantly, even with the water
jar on her head, and when carrying the
basket with the workmen's meals
| The distaff, it must be admitted, had
about it certain matrimonial virtue which
enticed young men anxious to marry, the
same as mirror attracts looks. Clairette
was determined to have one of these magi-
cal utensils. If plain willow distaff prov
ed so highly advantageous to the house.
keeper Biebe, what would not be the effect
of handsome distaff of hazel, exquisitely
carved by the best workmen of the village,
decked with the finest white wool instead
of coarse flax, and entwined with red rib
bons instead of packthread?
The young girl fits herself out; she buys
the choisest spinning apparatus in the
country, covers it with wool as white rs
snow, adorns it with ribbons artistically
| civ hor