Eusebe scuttled across to the group, clutching in one
hand an unfinished sandal: 'En voila une jolie affaire!5
he remarked. And turning to Madame Roustan with
a bow: cYour dear son was safer, it would seem, in
my vineyards.3
'Do not speak to me, shameless old man/ she gasped,
'I suspect that this misery is largely your doing!3
After this they all started to talk at once, while
Mireio still barked, and le tout petit Loup began to
wail even more dolefully, because of the cramp that
was twisting his entrails. So at last Marie carried him
upstairs to bed and Jouse bethought himself of the
doctor.
§6
Le tout petit Loup was ill for a month; he was
suffering from shock and acute gastritis. The doctor
informed them that a dangerous chill had promptly
attacked his delicate stomach. Jan developed a furious
cold in the head to the great indignation of his anxious
parent, while Goundran and Christophe got off scot
free — this in spite of drenched clothes and a biting
mistral.
But Christophe was very severely punished by his
usually easy-going father. Every day of that month,
when he got home from school, he was sent to bed in
his tiny attic; and there he must lie supperless and
alone contemplating his serious misdemeanour.
Neither Anfos nor Mireio might pay him a visit
during those dreary hours of his penance; and when
Jousfe caught Anfos emerging from the larder with a
plateful of titbits for the hungry sinner, he adminis-
tered a workman-like box on the ear, for Jouse's
temper was decidedly short, since in punishing Chris-
tophe he was punishing Jouse.
All the same, Anfos managed to sneak out at night
109