A PAILALLEL TO ST. AUGUSTINE. 177 



the seeds were forgotten and replaced by others a fortnight 

 before they could have germinated. 



My brother and I went in the morning, with a little basket, 

 in which were put the provisions for the day — slices of bread- 

 and-butter and some fruit, destined for a meal while the 

 other boys were at dinner. We were humiliated by the 

 neighbourhood of a garden that quite eclipsed ours. The 

 possessor of this garden had, as we had done in oxirs, sown 

 some peas. His were much handsomer than ours. Perhaps 

 he had taken them up less frequently to see if they had 

 germinated. 



One day we were inspired with the means of putting an 

 end to our envy, and at the same time of awakening it in our 

 comrades. My father had a neighbour ; each possessed the half 

 of a large garden, which was divided only by a walk. This 

 neighbour had some magnificent hyacinths, and was very 

 proud of them. We took it into our heads to transfer these 

 hyacinths to our school-garden. In the evening I stole quietly 

 from the house, and went straight to the bed of hyacinths ; 

 I trembled a little, but I seized one by the stalk. I pulled 

 it in order to break it, but the root followed the stalk. I 

 did not want the root- — there was nothing pretty in that, 

 and I saw no use in it Nevertheless, I deferred separating 

 it till I could safely throw it away ; but I had not the time. 

 I took a second hyacinth, then a third ; I concealed them 

 in the cellar. I went into the house again, and my brother, 

 in his turn, attacked the hyacinth bed. Nisus and Euryalus 

 did not commit greater havoc among the Kutulians. When 

 morning came, never had we been up so early, or so ready 

 to go to school. We laid eight or ten roots at the bottom 

 of our basket, and three or four, the flower stalks of which 

 we had gathered without the root; and then we placed our 

 bread-and-butter at the top. 



These are but bad recollections, you will say, my friend ; 

 and yet I can assure you, that neither my brother nor I 

 acquired from this boy's trick any propensity for stealing. 

 The same thing happened to St. Augustine, who, when a 

 child, was a thief, as we were, and relates the circumstance 

 in his Confessions with a sort of witty, half-roguish con- 

 trition. 



