The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-11-20
MARGUERITE's MUSIC BOX.

M~ARGUERITE'S MUSIC BOX.
Story Of a Skilful Wood Carver
and His Loving Sister.
High up on a spur of the mountain
chain which lies in the Southern part of
the Pays de Vaud, stood a little chalet,
or mountain hut. where lived Antoine
Beauvert with his wife and two chill
dren, Francois and Marguerite. The
Beauverts were very poor, but Antoine
was a very industrious mai, and man
aged by skillful cultivation of his little
vineyard to raise, some years, a fine
crop of grapes, while in winter he
would sit all day before the cottage
window which looked down into the
valley, and here, where the daylight
shone brightest and fingered longest,
he would work busily away, making
musiceboxes.
t.It is such a pity for Antoine that he
mas ciCnly -WAC, oil HIS uclSlUOTS
said to one anothe; ga wife who can do
be waited upon"
But Antoine did not think SO. Every
night when he retired he thanked God
for the blessing of home, wife and
children. He still calledthem children,
though Francois was a tall young man
of twenty, and Marguerite had just
passed her eighteenth birthday. my
good Jeanne" Antoine was won't to
say to himself, sis the best of wives.
Few men have so much cause for con-
graduation. In all the twelve years.
that she has been obliged to keep her
bed, no n has ever heard her COM
plain of her hard lot. As for my chill.
dren, there is not their like in the whole
canton, / venture to say. Where, in,
deed, is there another daughter like
Marguerite, so dutiful and afectionateP
And Francois little self-willed and
rebellious, it is true, but known already
as the best wood-carVer for miles
around, and with a talent for music
that will make him a famous man
some day.
1t was true that Francois was the
most ingenious of all the ~wood-carvers
who carried their work to the market
town for sale twice a year, and though
there were many older and more expe-
rienced carvers among them, he was
sure to receive the highest price, not
w~ithstanding the fact that he wal COM
paratively unframed.
at is all favoritism," old Baptiste
Godin woald say, shaking his scanty
white locks reprovingly at his grandson
the slow, go~od-natured Jacques. cit
father was the most expert carver in the
canton in his day, and whose father
and grandfather were carvers before.
him, should do better work than this
young upstart, whose father spends half
his time as a yine-dresser and the rest
in making music-boxes. 1t is his hand
some face and smooth tongue that be-
guiles the money from the close-handed
buyer, while your better work goes I'M
sold"
Better or not retorted Jacques, 81
can never sell my carvings while his are
beside them. And where is the advan-
tage of being descended from a race of
carvers, if one must use the same old
patterns that have been in use for gen-
erations, while Francois disdains to use
a pattern that he has not himself in
ventedp He goes to nature for his
models, and one seems to see the real
ferns and lichens and eidelweiss he
carves upon his boxes. You should see
the c~asse-noix he makes! No grinning,
hideous old men, like those the Godins
have been carving, father and son, for
three generations, but lizards, grifins.
o, there is no lack of invention, I PROM
Use you"
Mature, indeed!'' replied old Bap-
tiste, wrathfully. '.Is it more natural.
then, that a lizard should crack nuts
with his teeth than a manP And in
what part of the canton does he find
live griffins for models? You are as
mad as the rest, JacquesI"
Jacques was right, however, in at
tributing the number of Francois Gus
toners to his skill in designing. A GER
tain dainty charm of delicacy and origi-
nality distinguished his work among
the hackneyed subjects of his COMPETE
tors. Tiny box for holding a betrothal
ring would be covered with delicately
carved blossoms of the eidelweiss. A
layet box, which was t hold the dainty
linen garments of some young mother S
darling, he would ornament with a
background of lichens and ferns, with
a group of cherub faces on the cover
in high relief, framed in with a border
of rosebuds and pansies.
But the best piece of carving that
Francois had yet done was on the case
of a music-box hat he and his father
had made for Marguerite's birthday
present.
She had so few pleasures" her low
ing old father had said, ..let's make her,
Francois, something that will be the
envy of the neighborhood."
LET me compose the tune it is to
play" suggested Francois, .sand then
there will not be another like it in the
whole world"
So, for many months they secretly
wrought all their spare moments into it,
and when her eighteenth birthday came,
and Marguerite held the exquisite, dainty
little box in her hands, she was hall
wild with delight.
''See, dear mother" she said, with
childish rapture, as she turned it over
and over, .'here is a goats head that is
surely that of Bebe, who follows me to
the pasture every day; here are the very
grapes and tendrils that grow in our
vineyard but SO tiny that ones eyes can
scarcely make them out this Ia the