A MODERN JACOB.

Temuka Leader, Issue 292, 18 September 1880, Page 2

A MODERN JACOB.

The Philadelphia " Telegraph's" Paris letter says :—I was recently told by a young French gentleman (the son of the Prefect of La Rochelle) one of the strangest romance d real life that ever came to my knowledge. Some years ago a peasant boy who lived on a fajm near the town of Clermont Ferrand saw and fell in love withe the beautiful daughter of a gentleman of good fortune and position, he being at that time seventeen . This new " Claude Melnotte" was so madly in love thet he went straight to the house of the young girl's parents and demanded her hand in marriage. The father treated the preposterous proposition with good-natured scorn. " Come back when you have an income of L 8000," was his answer," and then we will seeabout it. The infatuated youth took him at his word, and forthwith eet to work. Now one of the peculiarities of the town of ClermontFerrand is a scarcity of water. There is no river near it, so it r lies for its water supply on springs and wells Under those circumstances a spring is a valuable piece of property and commands a relatively high price. So the young peasant lever set out for an adjacent mountain, there to search for hidden springs. My informant 6aid that he had honev combed the whole side of the mountain with his works, constructing at one point a tunnel over two miles in length. All this was expouted with his own hands* He works from dawn to dark, lives upon potatoes of his own planting, and never spends so much as a scu upon a mug of beer. Every Sunday he goes to chunhin the town, after which he proceeds to the house of his ladylove, to ask if she is married or likely to be.

On rehiring her response in the negative ■}• he plods contentedly homewards, -aiid starts out afresh to his toil on the morrow. Tuis life has continued nrw for fall four ypars. Up to the present time! he has discnv red three important springs, each of which he sold for Llooo, but though now possessed of what for a man in his condition of life is wealth, he abates none of the hardships of his existence. He has one idea, nam«ly, to become the possessor of a fortune sufficient to enable him to claim the hand of the object of his blind passion. Yet / no one who knows the parties even " % imagines that the young lady will ever. < consent to marry him. She is" now twenty years 01 age, and is pretty, refined and accomplished, while he is a coarse unlettered peasant, without evon physical comeliness, as he is short and thickset with a broad, stolid countenance. Will he go mad or break his heartthe day he finds his beloved wither married or bethrothed ? Or will he die some day of privation and overwork, with a vision success before his eyes. """"