THE SISYPHUS BEETLE 141 



roots are growing longer ; his plantation, containing four 

 oak-trees an inch in height, to which the acorns still 

 adhere. These serve as diversions after the arid study 

 of grammar, which goes forward none the worse on that 

 account. 



What beautiful and useful knowledge the teaching 

 of natural history might put into childish heads, if only 

 science would consider the very young ; if our barracks 

 of universities would only combine the lifeless study of 

 books with the living study of the fields ; if only the red 

 tape of the curriculum, so dear to bureaucrats, would not 

 strangle all willing initiative. Little Paul and I will 

 study as much as possible in the open country, among 

 the rosemary bushes and arbutus. There we shall gain 

 vigour of body and of mind ; we shall find the true and 

 the beautiful better than in school-books. 



To-day the blackboard has a rest ; it is a holiday. We 

 rise early, in view of the intended expedition ; so early 

 that we must set out fasting. But no matter ; when we 

 are hungry we shall rest in the shade, and you will find 

 in my knapsack the usual viaticum — apples and a crust 

 of bread. The month of May is near ; the Sisyphus 

 should have appeared. Now we must explore at the 

 foot of the mountain, the scanty pastures through which 

 the herds have passed ; we must break with our fingers, 

 one by one, the cakes of sheep-dung dried by the sun, 

 but still retaining a spot of moisture in the centre. 

 There we shall find Sisyphus, cowering and waiting 

 until the evening for fresher pasturage. 



Possessed of this secret, which I learned from previous 

 fortuitous discoveries, little Paul immediately becomes 

 a master in the art of dislodging the beetle. He shows 



