BILLY AND HANS 



every side, gnawed at the stem and 

 then at the apex, but in vain. Yet 

 he persisted. The odour of the pine 

 seemed an intoxication to him, and 

 the eager satisfaction with which he 

 split the nuts, once taken out for him 

 — even when Billy was watching him 

 to confiscate them when open — was 

 very interesting ; for he had never 

 seen the fruit of the stone-pine, and 

 knew only the little seeds which the 

 fir of the Northern Forest bears ; and 

 to extricate the pine-nuts from their 

 strong and hard cones was impossible 

 to his tiny teeth and I had to extract 

 them for him. As for Billy, he was 

 content to sit and look on while Hans 

 gnawed, and to take the kernel from 

 him when he had split the shell ; and 

 the charming bonhomie with which he 

 appropriated it, and with which Hans 

 submitted to the piracy, was a study. 



