“Ah, certainly I experience a very agreeable emotion, when in an old custom I find the traces of the religious spirit of our fathers, and listen to their legends and songs.  This emotion, however, does not prevent me from thinking of that which should be created by the imposing spectacle of the progress of civilization, more than the pleasure I would enjoy if I reposed by the side of a fresh spring, mysteriously concealed amid a forest, would prevent me from loving to look on a majestic river, down which floated the canvas of some ship, or the boilers of a steamer.  The perfection of matters would be to kindle our soul with the lights of science, and at the same time preserve the innocent candor of our hearts.  Thus will we obey the Bible-text which says, ’You shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven, unless you be as little children.’  To be a child in simple-heartedness, a man in toil and labor, is the end we should propose to ourselves.”

“Yes,” said M. de Vermondans, “that is a truly noble object.  We cannot however expect to attain it.  Pride unnoticed, is created by the very labor of our minds, and when that poison has inoculated our hearts, farewell to innocence.  I will agree with you as to the indisputable benefits of science.  Confess, however, that all the learning of your philosophers and mathematicians can I never confer on any people the precious customs of the days of old.  When we look back on what has been done by the would-be wise men of antiquity to ennoble the moral state of man, I will not speak of the mad ceremonial of the burlesque festivals invented by the revolutionists of 1793.  They were but scenes of disorder and frenzy.  Imagine, however, the purest and most solemn of the discoveries of science, and compare it with the Christmas festival which the Swedish peasant will celebrate in a few days, and tell me which contributes to true emotion, to the moral good.  Alete, give me my pipe.”

The last words were the usual signal given by the good old man when he felt the length of the conversation fatiguing, or felt his favorite ideas paradoxical, though they sometimes were pressed on by arguments the tenor of which he found it difficult to resist.

Alete went to get the long pipe, with its stem of maple-root, and filled it with tobacco with her own pretty fingers.  A sweet smile and a deferential look from Eric recompensed her.  When he saw M. de Vermondans seated in his chair, and inhaling the aroma of tobacco through the amber mouthpiece, he said,

“Since you remember our Christmas festival, you will not forget that we expect you, Ebba, Alete, and Ireneus to keep it at our house.”

“Yes, Eric,” said M. de Vermondans, “I like your father, and shall be happy to pass a day with him.”

“Yes, dear Eric,” said Alete, “I love your father.  Pay however some attention to old Marguerite’s preparations.  I wish to be received like a princess, and if all the plate is not produced to do me honor, if the table be not covered with the finest linen and loaded with delicacies, if the furniture does not glitter like glass, and the passage-hall and corridor are not bright as if for a wedding, I will turn all the house upside down.”