214 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



her lungs she wore a woollen couvrette, or shawl-saddle, 

 to which for some reason or other she had taken such 

 a fancy that she would readjust it herself whenever it 

 slipped down. But one morning she sauntered toward 

 an open gate where the laborers had unloaded two big 

 vats full of pickerel-spawn, and, finding the mixture 

 pleasantly cool, she upset one of the vats and began to 

 welter like a pig in a puddle. She had just upset the 

 second tub when the enraged gate-keeper fell upon her 

 with a cow-hide, and after belaboring her till her grunts 

 changed into pitiful squeals, he snatched away the soiled 

 couvrette and dismissed the culprit with a fifty-pound 

 kick. Micheline had not offered the least resistance, 

 but when she walked away she uttered a series of pe- 

 culiar gutturals, sounding almost like muttered threats. 

 She walked toward the orangery, and one of the gar- 

 deners who had watched the rumpus from a window of 

 his lodge then became the witness of a curious scene. 

 In the orangery the gate-keeper's children were at play 

 among the trees, and, without the least provocation on 

 their part, Micheline suddenly charged them, and, sing- 

 ling out the biggest boy, began to thrash him with her 

 trunk just as the old man had thrashed her with his 

 cow-hide. After dodging left and right between the 

 bushes, the little lad ran screaming toward the gate; 

 but the superior speed of his pursuer obliged him to 

 take refuge in a tree, and before he could clamber out 

 of reach Micheline grabbed his breeches — a worn-out 



