FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

sobbing of the women _____ _______ the tears which run down their cheeks. You
would see the children _______ _______ ______ _______ _______ not yet old enough
to feel the pains which _______, with unquiet eyes, mouth _______ and immobile ____
_______ ______ of the afflicted of the parents. You _____ ________ them around the
tomb, and the noise _______ of the first earth which falls on the coffin, to be covered
forever, which would make you tremble, and this heart-rending tableau would fill your
eyes.
But listen to the worried traveler who in the middle of these savage scenes, thinks with
regret about the roads _______ and the good inns of civilized Europe. It will occur to
you that a bad rabonguis is barely able to defend a corner of the earth and a few trees
from the incursions of cattle. What is there ______, with no religious ceremony, is that
the son buries the body of his father and _______ probably in the same ______ with
regret and memories. Don’t believe either one or the other. It is by necessity and not by
choice that each family has its own cemetery on the property without pomp and without
ceremony. Men are about the same everywhere: the good son and the tender mother, the
faithful spouse dropping tears on the body which they wish with their hands to give
_____ ________ ______. In working to _______ the land which surrounds the cemetery
so simple, they turn their eyes ____ _____ _____ and portent au jour _____ ______
______, cold, hard interesses they plough the enclosure with as much indifference as
_____ in Europe _______ of tombs of ses ________ to go to church, where you see them
more often occupied with their ________ than with words.
[p 4] _________ qu’on _______ 5 or 6 times along the way. ______ we traversed
several times, which was not at all deep, but it seemed to me that it was swelling a lot in
the _______. One could judge by the levels marked by the water along the banks.
Saturday we left at the same time as the day before, and we traveled towards the
Alleghanies during the middle of the day. <strong>The</strong> mountains (if they deserve the word)
_______ present a very different look from that of the sidelings. It’s a country that rises
gradually, by gentle waves, and which one ascends and descends without _______. One
can see that they are snow covered. <strong>The</strong>y tell us that it’s quite usual to find ice on the
highest place during the month of January and that they have 3 inches of snow this past
September. All I know from experience is that the sun yesterday, November 6, was
beautiful, the atmosphere laden with mist in the valleys, and even several degrees above
the horizon, but very strong on our heads, the air most soft, and the heat such that when
walking we had to take off our jackets. In fact we could hardly bear them in the carriage.
In the morning there was a pretty hard frost, but no sign of snow or ice. All in all, it
appears that this is the most beautiful season of this climate. <strong>The</strong>y call it Indian Summer.
We saw 4 or 5 workers ________ busy working on the road. This gives hope that within
10 years or so it will be a bit passable. 10 As for the present, you have to walk to make the
steep grades and even more so the descents, if you don’t want to be shaken to pieces in a
way that is not known in France or in England. Nevertheless, the only serious risk is that
10 Jean-Baptiste has a sense of humor!
35