Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 1).djvu/86

Rh standing, I must first throw myself down; but I have always been much ridiculed by my companions for it."

"For the rest," resumed the priest, "you have mountain-legs, and you must have been born in the Cevennes, or the Pyrenees, your eye too is characteristic of the mountaineer who is far-sighted."

"Just so," said the huntsman, "I come from Lozère, the wildest part of the mountains."

"Well, my young friend," said the connoisseur in legs, turning to the young lad,— "You pretend to be a miller and want miller's legs, how does that happen? observe, that from carrying sacks, the miller's back is early bent and becomes broad and round, but the principal weight presses upon the calves of the legs, the sinews of the hams become disproportionately strong; but with you these are precisely the weakest parts, the ancles too are not large enough: here, summa summarum fails the miller's character, for my science cannot deceive."