air of trousers,
one stocking, one boot, one shirt. That was all.

He was now shivering from head to foot, his teeth chattered in his
mouth, his whole appearance was one of utter wretchedness. He did
not cry; he was too miserable; he only kept muttering: "I will never
disobey mamma any more; I will never do it, never, never."

He looked round to ascertain that no one was looking at him. What
was his vexation to discover the man with the sand-eels eyeing him,
a repulsive grin covering his whole face, and a small black pipe
stuck between his teeth.

This sight, instead of discouraging Frank, made him assume an air of
bravado. He took his shirt, wrung out the water, shook it and
proceeded to put it on. How cold it was; how it stuck to his little
body. It only made him shiver the more. He put his stocking on the
left foot; then he put on his trousers, and lastly, his boot. This
boot he put on the right foot so that his feet were both hidden from
view. Then with a heavy and repentant heart--what person is not
repentant when he sees himself in some nasty scrape caused by his
own sinfulness?--he directed his irregular steps towards his home. A
curious sight to gaze upon was this little fellow as he wearily
plodded on his way.

He had not advanced twenty yards when he took off his boot and put
it on the other foot. He could not endure the pain that it caused
him. He had not been accustomed to go without stockings, he had
never tried the experiment before, and he wondered why his feet were
so tender. He rose and began to walk once more. It was an unequal
walk, like that of a person with a short leg. He stopped again. Some
gravel had found its way into his boot, and the torture which it
caused him was unendurable. He carefully withdrew all the
pain-inflicting pebbles, brushed off the gravel that adhered to his
stocking, and resumed his laborious task of walking. When he came
into the road, the people which he met laughed at him. "Ah; what
nasty people there are in these places," he thought. He fancied he
was being punished. He had hoped to have had a lot of fun. He would
have returned home, invented some pretext for having been longer
than usual; and now, what a wretched plight he was in. Why was he
not punished in another way? this was too severe, he had never
sinned at that amount, he was receiving extra payment.

Thus soliloquized our little man when he arrived near a farm-house
called "Les Pins." He heard a pig squeak,