I suggested there was nothing more likely, as he must have some amusement.

The foreman said it was odd, but there was less of that sort of thing than formerly. “ C’est difficile ,” he added, “ à expliquer. ”

When we were well up on the moors and the Conductor was trying some road-metal with the gauge⁠—

“Hark!” said the foreman, “do you hear nothing?”

We listened, and the wind, which was blowing chilly out of the east, brought a faint, tangled jangling to our ears.

“It is the flocks of Vivarais,” said he.

For every summer, the flocks out of all Ardèche are brought up to pasture on these grassy plateaux.