nd two boys--the biggest and the most
courageous. She made them take off their shoes so that they might not
be discovered. The troupe filed into the house and mounted the stairs as
stealthily as an army of mice.

Once in the chamber, the little girl, imitating her mother, regulated the
ceremony. She solemnly walked in advance of her comrades, went down on
her knees, made the sign of the cross, moistened her lips with the holy
water, stood up again, sprinkled the bed, and while the children, all
crowded together, were approaching--frightened and curious, and eager
to look at the face and hands of the deceased--she began suddenly to
simulate sobbing, and to bury her eyes in her little handkerchief. Then,
becoming instantly consoled, on thinking of the other children who were
downstairs waiting at the door, she withdrew in haste, returning in a
minute with another group, then a third, for all the little ruffians of
the country-side, even to the little beggars in rags, had congregated in
order to participate in this new pleasure; and each time she repeated her
mother's grimaces with absolute perfection.

At length, however, she became tired. Some game or other attracted the
children away from the house, and the old grandmother was left alone,
forgotten suddenly by everybody.

A dismal gloom pervaded the chamber, and upon the dry and rigid features
of the corpse, the dying flames of the candles cast occasional gleams of
light.

Towards 8 o'clock, Caravan ascended to the chamber of death, closed the
windows, and renewed the candles. On entering now he was quite composed,
evidently accustomed already to regard the corpse as though it had been
there for a month. He even went the length of declaring that, as yet,
there was not any signs of decomposition, making this remark just at the
moment when he and his wife were about to sit down at table. "Pshaw!" she
responded, "she is now in wood; she will keep there for a year."

The soup was eaten without a word being uttered by anyone. The children,
who had been free all day, now worn out by fatigue, were sleeping soundly
on their chairs, and nobody ventured on breaking the silence.

Suddenly the flame of the lamp went down. Mdme. Caravan immediately
turned up the wick, a prolonged gurgling noise ensued, and the light went
out. It had been forgotten during the day to buy oil. To send for it now
to the grocers' would keep back the dinner, and everybody began to look
for candles,