baron is off to his account. Yes, Madame Gruget, the nurse, told me he
couldn't live through the day. What a stir there'll be! oh! won't there!
Go along, you fellows, and see if the stoves are drawing properly.
Heavens and earth! our world is coming down about our ears."

"That poor young one," said Laurent, "had a sort of sunstroke when he
heard that Jesuit of a Dutocq had got here before him."

"I have told him a dozen times,--for after all one ought to tell the
truth to an honest clerk, and what I call an honest clerk is one like
that little fellow who gives us 'recta' his ten francs on New-Year's
day,--I have said to him again and again: The more you work the more
they'll make you work, and they won't promote you. He doesn't listen to
me; he tires himself out staying here till five o'clock, an hour after
all the others have gone. Folly! he'll never get on that way! The proof
is that not a word has been said about giving him an appointment, though
he has been here two years. It's a shame! it makes my blood boil."

"Monsieur Rabourdin is very fond of Monsieur Sebastien," said Laurent.

"But Monsieur Rabourdin isn't a minister," retorted Antoine; "it will
be a hot day when that happens, and the hens will have teeth; he is
too--but mum! When I think that I carry salaries to those humbugs who
stay away and do as they please, while that poor little La Roche works
himself to death, I ask myself if God ever thinks of the civil service.
And what do they give you, these pets of Monsieur le marechal and
Monsieur le duc? 'Thank you, my dear Antoine, thank you,' with a
gracious nod! Pack of sluggards! go to work, or you'll bring another
revolution about your ears. Didn't see such goings-on under Monsieur
Robert Lindet. I know, for I served my apprenticeship under Robert
Lindet. The clerks had to work in his day! You ought to have seen how
they scratched paper here till midnight; why, the stoves went out
and nobody noticed it. It was all because the guillotine was there!
now-a-days they only mark 'em when they come in late!"

"Uncle Antoine," said Gabriel, "as you are so talkative this morning,
just tell us what you think a clerk really ought to be."

"A government clerk," replied Antoine, gravely, "is a man who sits in a
government office and writes. But there, there, what am I talking about?
Without the clerks, where should we be, I'd like to know? Go along
and look after your stoves and mind you never say harm of a governm