achery," "the moon's changeableness." They
repeated all the commonplaces that have been uttered about the sex.

It was the desire for women that had suspended their friendship. A
feeling of remorse took possession of them. "No more women. Is not that
so? Let us live without them!" And they embraced each other tenderly.

There should be a reaction; and Bouvard, when Pecuchet was better,
considered that a course of hydropathic treatment would be beneficial.

Germaine, who had come back since the other servant's departure, carried
the bathing-tub each morning into the corridor.

The two worthies, naked as savages, poured over themselves big buckets
of water; they then rushed back to their rooms. They were seen through
the garden fence, and people were scandalised.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VIII.

NEW DIVERSIONS.

Satisfied with their regimen, they desired to improve their
constitutions by gymnastics; and taking up the _Manual of Amoros_, they
went through its atlas. All those young lads squatting, lying back,
standing, bending their legs, lifting weights, riding on beams, climbing
ladders, cutting capers on trapezes--such a display of strength and
agility excited their envy.

However, they were saddened by the splendour of the gymnasium described
in the preface; for they would never be able to get a vestibule for the
equipages, a hippodrome for the races, a sweep of water for the
swimming, or a "mountain of glory"--an artificial hillock over one
hundred feet in height.

A wooden vaulting-horse with the stuffing would have been expensive:
they abandoned the idea. The linden tree, thrown down in the garden,
might have been used as a horizontal pole; and, when they were skilful
enough to go over it from one end to the other, in order to have a
vertical one, they set up a beam of counter-espaliers. Pecuchet
clambered to the top; Bouvard slipped off, always fell back, finally
gave it up.

The "orthosomatic sticks" pleased him better; that is to say, two
broomsticks bound by two cords, the first of which passes under the
armpits, and the second over the wrists; and for hours he would remain
in this apparatus, with his chin raised, his chest extended, and his
elbows close to his sides.

For want of dumbbells, the wheelwright turned out four pieces of ash
resembling sugar-loaves with necks of bottles at the ends. These should
be carried to the right and to the left, to the front and to the back;
but being to