FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



of correction. In a yard between four walls, a sort of 

 bear-pit, the boys fought to make room for their games 

 under a spreading plane-tree. All round it were cells 

 like horseboxes, without light or air: those were the 

 class-rooms. 



I saw, too, the shop where I used to buy tobacco as I 

 came out of the college; and also my former dwelling, 

 now occupied by monks. There, in the embrasure of a 

 window, sheltered from profane hands, between the 

 closed outer shutters and the panes, I kept my chemicals 

 bought for a few sous saved out of the housekeeping 

 money. My experiments, harmless or dangerous, were 

 made on a corner of the fire, beside the simmering broth. 

 How I should love to see that room again, where I pored 

 over mathematical problems ; and my familiar friend the 

 blackboard, which I hired for five francs a year, and 

 could never buy outright for want of the necessary cash ! 



But I must return to my insects. My visit to 

 Carpentras, unfortunately, was made too late in the 

 year to be very profitable. I saw only a few Anthrax 

 Flies hovering round the face of the cliff. Yet I did not 

 despair, because it was plain that these few were not 

 there to take exercise, but to settle their families. 



So I took my stand at the foot of the rock, under a 

 broiling sun, and for half a day I followed the move- 

 ments of my Flies. They flitted quietly in front of the 

 slope, a few inches away from the earthly covering. 



[264] 



