THE child's GAUDEN, 175 



it trees and flowers brought from iall sorts of soils. The child 

 had liberty to walk in all my garden, to see and inhale all 

 the flowers ; he preferred enclosing a little square patch, and 

 to stick in it two or three of these same flowers, exactly as 

 I had done, only it cost him nothing but the time in which 

 he did it, and I have spent much money. Then, when his 

 garden was made, he left it, went to amuse himself with 

 something else, and forgot it; whilst I, with this plot of 

 ground, have purchased a thousand cares. 



Formerly, if the wind in its fury blew down a tree, that 

 was a spectacle for me; to-day, it breaks one oimy trees; and 

 that is a fear beforehand, a regret and a loss afterwards. I 

 like old ruined walls falling into dust, and creating retreats 

 for the lizards ; now-ardays, I feel a great inclination to have 

 my wall repaired, some of the stones being detached. 



The second thing I recollected was, that I formerly did, 

 when I was a child, exactly the same thing in the garden of 

 another person, that this child did in mine. 



My brother and I were then quite little fellows, and we 

 were sent in the morning to a sort of school, not, I suppose, 

 that we might learn anything — not that we might be at 

 school — ^but that we might not be at home ; where, probably, 

 we made more noise than was agreeable. 



The master of the school, or of the academy, I don't 

 know which title he claimed for himself, was like others; 

 he was an honest restaurateur, who made up for the butter 

 he did not put into the soup of his pupils by instruction 

 which he was supposed to impart to them. The plan of 

 these houses, in which it is always announced that the heart 

 and the mind of youth is formed, is always invariably esta- 

 blished on this problem : to find a means of selling soup in 

 the most advantageous way possible. The problem is resolved 

 in the manner of the possessors of cafis, who propose one 

 nearly analogous : viz. to find the means of selling for fifteen 

 or twenty sous that which people would have better at home, 

 and without inconvenience, for four or five sous. The caf6s 

 have the journals ; the schoolmasters, those other public- 

 house keepers, have Latin. 



This worthy, who was named M. Roncin, was the largest 

 man I ever saw; this was his only means of obtaining con- 



