ts like white, weary flowers.

The sovereign Master said to them:

"Here I am. I heard your call, and am waiting to condemn those that
caused you to be born. What torment do you implore for them?"

Then the souls of the children sang like the bindweed of the hedges.

They sang:

"Glory to God! Glory to God! Pardon those who gave us birth. Lead us
some day to Heaven by their side."

THE PIPE

Once upon a time there was a young man who had a new pipe. He was
smoking peacefully in the shade of an arbor hung with blue grapes. His
wife was young and pretty; she had rolled up her sleeves as far as her
elbows and was drawing water from the well. The wooden bucket bounded
against the edge, and shed tears like a rainbow. The young man was
happy smoking his pipe, because he saw the birds flying hither and
thither, because his dear old mother was still among the living,
because his old father was hale, and because he loved with all his
heart his young wife, and was proud of her lithesomeness and her firm
and smooth breasts that were like two ripe apples.

The young man, as I have said, was smoking a new pipe.

His mother fell very ill. They had to operate, and it made her cry out
aloud, until after thirty-four days of horrible suffering she died.
His father, who was always so hale, was talking one day with a workman
at the door of the little village church, which was undergoing repair,
when a stone became detached from the arch and crushed his head.
The devoted son wept for these, his best and oldest friends, and, at
night, he sobbed in the arms of his pretty wife.

The young man, as I have said, was smoking a new pipe.

But I have forgotten to say that he had an old spaniel of whom he was
very fond and whose name was Thomas.

A very great illness had fallen on Thomas, since the good mother's
and the good father's deaths. When he was called he could barely drag
himself along by the paws of his fore-legs.

One day a man of the world took residence in the little village where
the young man was smoking a new pipe. He wore decorations and
was distinguished and spoke with an agreeable accent. They became
acquainted, and once, when the young man still smoking his new pipe
entered his house unexpectedly, he found this fine fellow abed with
his pretty wife whose firm and smooth breasts were like two ripe
apples.

The young man said nothing. He placed a poor old collar around the
neck of Thomas, and with a line wh