ADVENTURES OF A GUINEA-PIG 323 



to the influenza which just then scourged the city. In the 

 stuffy rooms of a hotel the days passed gloomily enough ; so 

 when he entered with a merry countenance and exhibited this 

 prize there was much rejoicing. The pig was dubbed the 

 "General," and the attentions due his rank were lavished upon 

 him. He was fed and petted and for a couple of days flourished, 

 then languished, and finally died. When this happened, late 

 in the evening, his little body was put out on the window-sill, 

 and next morning the man who came to make the fire was told 

 to take him away. Instead of obeying he gazed at the puny 

 object, shrugged his shoulders, and exclaimed with uplifted 

 hands, "C'est defendu," and no persuasion would avail until, 

 as he explained, he had got the necessary sanction of the police 

 for its removal. Mr. Shaler, intensely amused at so great regard 

 for legal forms, put the pig in his pocket and sallied forth. In 

 the park he was about to deposit the " General" behind a clump 

 of shrubbery when a policeman, as if divining some flagrant 

 intent, fixed his gaze upon him, and instead of going about his 

 business continued to hover near by. Several efforts to get rid 

 of what had now become a veritable burden in some bushes in 

 other parts of the city proving equally futile, Mr. Shaler gave 

 up the job for that day. 



The same evening at dinner by chance one of seeming author- 

 ity proclaimed the fact that French law was made for French 

 people only, and if once brought into the tribunal for any cause 

 whatsoever a stranger seldom escaped without suffering either 

 fine or imprisonment. Therefore, more than ever anxious to 

 elude, if there were any informality, the guardians of the law, 

 Mr. Shaler started out early the next morning determined to 

 free himself of his embarras. At last on one of the bridges, 

 seizing a favorable moment, over the wall into the Seine he 

 tossed the little creature freighted with its pathological message 

 which in his own person he was destined never to deliver. Ever 

 after with a merry twinkle in his eye, he spoke respectfully of 

 the ubiquity and vigilance of the French policeman of his 



