Three short works / The Dance of Death, the Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, a Simple Soul.

en, his head blue, the tips of his win

athers out, scattering refuse and spilling the water of his bath.

and several persons were astonished that he did not answer to the name of "Jacquot," for every parrot is called Jacquot. They called him a goose and

d the new habitués, Onfroy, the chemist, Monsieur Varin and Captain Mathieu, dropped in for their game o

hed his hat over his eyes to hide his profile, and entered by the garden door, and the looks he gave the bird lacked affection. Loulou, having thrust his head into the butcher-boy's basket, received a slap, and from that time he always tried to nip his enemy. Fabu threatened to wring his neck,

nd was unable to eat. There was a small growth under his tongue like those chickens are sometimes afflicted with. Félicité pulled it off with her nails and cured him. One day, Paul w

em: "Haven't you perhaps seen my parrot?" To those who had never seen the parrot, she described him minutely. Suddenly she thought she saw something green fluttering behind the mills at the foot of the hill. But when she was at the top of the hill she could not see it. A hod-carrier told her that he had just seen the bird in Saint-Melaine, in Mother Simon's store. She rushed

an earache. Three years later she was stone deaf, and spoke in a very loud voice even in church. Although her sins might have been proclaimed throughou

ress often said to her: "My goodness, how stupid you are!"

ng of the oxen, the chime of the bells no longer reached her intelligence. All thing

the shrill cry of the fish-vendors, the saw of the carpenter who had a shop opposite, and

at her lips, clung to her shawl, and when she rocked her head to and fro like a nurse, the big wings of her cap and the wings of the bird flapped in unison. When clouds gathered on the horizon and the thunder rumbled, Loulou would scream, perhaps because he remembered the storms in his na

old, she found him dead in his cage, hanging to the wire bars with his head down. He had probably died of congestio

er mistress said: "Why do

the chemist, who had alw

to do the work. But, as the diligence driver often lost parcels ent

farms barked; and Félicité, with her hands beneath her cape, her little black sabots and her basket, trotted alo

the way, the driver stood up in his seat and shouted to her and so did the postilion, while the four horses, which he could not hold back, accelerated their pace; the two leaders were almost upon her; w

basket. Loulou was unharmed. She felt a sting on her right cheek;

her handkerchief; then she ate a crust of bread she had pu

out in a confused mass. Then a weakness came over her; the misery of her childhood, the disappointment of her first love, the departure of h

the vessel, and without stating what she

week; after six months he announced the shipment of a case, and that was the end of it. Really, i

ogany pedestal, with his foot in the air, his head on one side, and in his beak a nut

dals, a number of Holy Virgins, and a holy-water basin made out of a cocoanut; on the bureau, which was covered with a napkin like an altar, stood the box of shells that Victor had given her; also a watering-can and a balloon, writing-books, the engraved geography and a pair of shoes; on the nail which held the mirror, hung Virginia's little plush hat! Félicité carried this sort of respect so far that she even kept one of Monsieur's old coats. All the things whi

por. The processions of Corpus-Christi Day seemed to wake her up. She visited the neigh

n more striking on a coloured picture by Espinal, representing the baptism of our Saviour. With his scarlet wings and emerald body, it was real

her eyes, and more comprehensible. In all probability the Father had never chosen as messenger a dove, as the latter has no voice, but rather one

anks of the "Daughters of the Virgin."

event occurred:

tion in the administration of woods and forests, he had at last, when he was thirty-six years old, by a divine inspiration, found

te settled, brought his

'Ev?que, put on airs, and hurt Félicité's feel

ng his integrity arose. Madame Aubain looked over her accounts and soon discovered his numerous embezzlements; sales of wood which had bee

t; her tongue looked as if it were coated with smoke, and the leeches they applied did not

icité mourned for her as servants seldom mourn for their masters. The fact that Madame should die before herself perplexed her mind and seemed contrary to the order of things, and absolutely monstrous and inad

pied by the pictures formed yellow squares on the walls. They had taken the two little beds, and t

on the door; the chemist screamed in

e tottered, and

ost, and it was this way that she contracted the idolatrous habit of saying her prayers kneeling in front of the bird. Som

den supplied her with vegetables. As for clothes, she had enough to last her ti

the old furniture. Since her fainting spell, she dragged her leg, and as her strength was failing rapidly, old Mo

not sell or rent. Fearing that she would be put out, Félicité did not ask for repairs. The laths of th

ng too deaf to hear, she caught only one word: "Pneumonia." She was familiar with it and gent

altars in the s

he post-office, and the third in the middle of the street. This position occasione

d that it would not be proper. But the curé gave his consent and she was so grateful for it that she begged him to accept after her death, her only treasure, Loulou. From Tuesday until Saturday, the day be

ounded her when the d

rwards she said that

a

othes, very ill at ease amo

effort to extend her arm, "I bel

ions mean? Suspect a

cited and was abou

she is not in h

o shadows. The women left her and

ook Loulou and holdin

to him, now!"

he wadding was coming out of his body. But Félicité was blind now, and she took him and l