mentioning aloud the names of the vegetables.

"Look here--carrots! Ah!--cabbages!"

Next, they inspected the espaliers. Pecuchet tried to discover the buds.
Sometimes a spider would scamper suddenly over the wall, and the two
shadows of their bodies appeared magnified, repeating their gestures.
The ends of the grass let the dew trickle out. The night was perfectly
black, and everything remained motionless in a profound silence, an
infinite sweetness. In the distance a cock was crowing.

Their two rooms had between them a little door, which was hidden by the
papering of the wall. By knocking a chest of drawers up against it,
nails were shaken out; and they found the place gaping open. This was a
surprise.

When they had undressed and got into bed, they kept babbling for some
time. Then they went asleep--Bouvard on his back, with his mouth open,
his head bare; Pecuchet on his right side, his knees in his stomach, his
head muffled in a cotton night-cap; and the pair snored under the
moonlight which made its way in through the windows.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER II.

EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE.

How happy they felt when they awoke next morning! Bouvard smoked a pipe,
and Pecuchet took a pinch of snuff, which they declared to be the best
they had ever had in their whole lives. Then they went to the window to
observe the landscape.

In front of them lay the fields, with a barn and the church-bell at the
right and a screen of poplars at the left.

Two principal walks, forming a cross, divided the garden into four
parts. The vegetables were contained in wide beds, where, at different
spots, arose dwarf cypresses and trees cut in distaff fashion. On one
side, an arbour just touched an artificial hillock; while, on the other,
the espaliers were supported against a wall; and at the end, a railed
opening gave a glimpse of the country outside. Beyond the wall there was
an orchard, and, next to a hedge of elm trees, a thicket; and behind the
railed opening there was a narrow road.

They were gazing on this spectacle together, when a man, with hair
turning grey, and wearing a black overcoat, appeared walking along the
pathway, striking with his cane all the bars of the railed fence. The
old servant informed them that this was M. Vaucorbeil, a doctor of some
reputation in the district. She mentioned that the other people of note
were the Comte de Faverges, formerly a deputy, and an extensive owner of
land and cattl