stinking privies! And this afternoon you shall carry
this jewel of cabinet-making to the farmer, Gaston;
you shall walk through the town with it under your
arm so that all may observe how the Benedits prosper.
"Te!" they will exclaim, "There goes Jouse's son
with a handsome new seat for old Gaston's privy."
It is well to exhibit our prosperity to those who now
buy at the Galeries Kahn, in case they should fancy
we miss their custom!5 Christophe stared at him with
miserable eyes, and seeing this Jouse spoke all the
louder: 'Ah, yes, there is also a fence to mend; the
Simons require a new slat in their fence, it would
seem that the dogs can enter their garden. Madame
Simon requests that you mend her fence, but on the
instant, you must please understand, on the instant.
The charge will be one franc fifty!5 And this sort of
thing would go on pretty often, for Jouse was not his
own man these days; the wine would have soured in
him during the night, so that his head throbbed and
ached the next morning.
With infinite patience Christophe would try to do
what he could to comfort his father: cAfter all,3 he
might urge, ewe may outlast Kahn. Kahn may
suddenly find himself tired of Saint Loup — one can
see that the town is quite empty this summer. And
then do not forget that the Cure has ordered six
rush-bottom chairs for Our Lady's Chapel; I have
noticed such chairs at the Galeries Kahn, yet the
Cure prefers to come here to us, and something tells
me that this is good luck — I have the idea that our
luck is changing.9 These and many similar things
he would say, while secretly feeling that they availed
nothing.
And meanwhile Anfos would just sit and carve —
always carving he was these days in his corner.
Strange pictures now grew up under his tools, having
in them a kind of disorderly beauty. Figures half-
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