Read "The Christmas Kalends of Provence" by Thomas A. Janvier online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The day dragged a little when we had finished in the kitchen with the giving of Christmas portions and the last of the farm-hands, calling back "_Boni festo! _," had gone away. For the womenkind, of course, there was a world to do; and Mise Fougueiroun whisked us out of her dominions with a pretty plain statement that our company was less desirable than our room. But for the men there was only idle waiting until night should come.
As for the Vidame -- who is a fiery fume of a little old gentleman, never happy unless in some way busily employed -- this period of stagnation was so galling that in sheer pity I mounted him upon his hobby and set him to galloping away. 'Twas an easy matter, and the stimulant that I administered was rather dangerously strong: for I brought up the blackest beast in the whole herd of his abominations by asking him if there were not some colour of reason in the belief that Marius lay not at Vielmur but at Glanum -- now Saint-Remy-de-Provence -- behind the lines of Roman wall which exist there to this day.