nurses and nurslings agree."

"What's the matter with the man? He is mad," said Jenkins to himself,
in dire dismay.

But the manager was very clear-headed, on the contrary, and had himself
shrewdly arranged the scene, selecting two patient, good-natured
beasts, and two exceptional subjects, two little idiots who were
determined to live at any price, and opened their mouths to nourishment
of any sort, like little birds still in the nest.

"Come, messieurs, and see for yourselves."

The cherubs were really nursing. One of them, cuddled under the goat's
belly, went at it so heartily that you could hear the _glou-glou_ of
the warm milk as it went down, down into his little legs, which
quivered with satisfaction. The other, more calm, lay indolently in his
Auvergnat nurse's lap, and required some little encouragement from her.

"Come, suck, I tell you, suck, _bougri_!"

At last, as if he had formed a sudden resolution, he began to drink so
greedily that the woman, surprised by his abnormal appetite, leaned
over him and exclaimed, with a laugh;

"Ah! the scamp, what a mischievous trick! it's his thumb he's sucking
instead of the goat."

He had thought of that expedient, the angel, to induce them to leave
him in peace. The incident produced no ill effect; on the contrary, M.
de La Perriere was much amused at the nurse's idea that the child had
tried to play a trick on them. He left the Nursery highly delighted.
"Positively de-de-delighted," he repeated as they ascended the grand
echoing staircase, decorated with stags' antlers, which led to the
dormitory.

Very light and airy was that great room, occupying the whole of one
side of the house, with numerous windows, cradles at equal intervals,
with curtains as white and fleecy as clouds. Women were passing to and
fro in the broad passage-way in the centre, with piles of linen in
their arms, keys in their hands, overseers or "movers." Here they had
tried to do too much, and the first impression of the visitors was
unfavorable. All that white muslin, that waxed floor, in which the
light shone without blending, the clean window-panes reflecting the
sky, which wore a gloomy look at sight of such things, brought out more
distinctly the thinness, the sickly pallor of those little
shroud-colored, moribund creatures. Alas! the oldest were but six
months, the youngest barely a fortnight, and already, upon all those
faces, those embryotic faces, there was an expression of disgu