﻿ADOLPHUS AND JAMES. 143 



nothing more grand, than his village, which contained fewer inhab- 

 itants than there are lodgers in a single hotel in Paris. Brought up 

 on a farm, fed on potatoes, having never opened a book, you may 

 imagine his astonishment on entering a great city, and being seated, 

 on the day of his arrival, in avast and elegant house, at the splendid 

 table of M. Valcourt. On seeing all these wonders, the thought 

 which occupied him most was the pleasure which he should have, 

 on his return to his hamlet, in saying to the little peasants, his com- 

 panions : 



" I have seen a house more beautiful than our church ; pictures 

 larger than those in the chapel. I have seen domestics whose coats 

 were embroidered with gold and silver. I have been seated at table 

 by the side of a great lady." 



But while he was examining everything in the house with an air 

 of surprise and curiosity, Adolphus, who had made acquaintance 

 with him from the very first, was resolving to amuse himself with 

 his ignorance, and seized with eagerness upon every occasion in 

 which he could make him feel it. Thus, one day he made him 

 believe that a servant wearing a gilded coat and hat with feathers 

 was the King of France, and persuaded him to salute him and kiss 

 his hand. On the day of his arrival, when he was admitted to the 

 same table, he made him drink, under pretence that this was cus- 

 tomary, of two large bowls of warm water which were served at the 

 end of dinner to rinse the mouth and wash the tips of the fingers. 

 Adolphus made him also eat the large end of the asparagus, and 

 suck the artichokes on the side where the sharpest teeth could not 

 bite them. Finally, Adolphus took pains to display all his city 

 knowledge before the poor peasant. In his presence he pretended 

 to touch his mother's piano and to paint in his father's study. At 

 another time he turned over all the books in the library, assumed 

 airs of importance, ordered the domestics about, and played a thou- 

 sand tricks to impose on our astonished mountaineer. 



One day, when they were both playing alone in a room where 

 there was a parrot, they suddenly heard a hoarse voice imitating the 

 sound of a drum : " Rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub !" James, sur- 

 prised, turned and saw no one. The hoarse voice re-commenced 

 " Rub-a-dub, dub, dub /" 



