out to the one-eyed woman, 'Look ye
there, Chouette; Pegriotte is eating the barley-sugar!'"

"Oh, thunder and lightning!" said the Chourineur; "that would enrage
her,--make her in a passion! Poor little mouse, what a fright you were
in when the Chouette saw you!--eh?"

"How did you get out of that affair, poor Goualeuse?" asked Rodolph,
with as much interest as the Chourineur.

"Why, it was a serious matter to me,--but that was afterwards; for the
Chouette, although boiling over with rage at seeing me devour the
barley-sugar, could not leave her stove, for the fish was frying."

"Ha! ha! ha! True, true,--that was a difficult position for her," said
the Chourineur, laughing heartily.

"At a distance, the Chouette threatened me with her long iron fork; but
when her fish was cooked, she came towards me. I had only collected
three sous, and I had eaten six sous' worth. She did not say a word, but
took me by the hand and dragged me away with her. At this moment, I do
not know how it was that I did not die on the spot with fright. I
remember it as well as if it was this very moment,--it was very near to
New Year's day, and there were a great many shops on the Pont Neuf, all
filled with toys, and I had been looking at them all the evening with
the greatest delight,--beautiful dolls, little furnished houses,--you
know how very amusing such things are for a child."

"You had never had any playthings, had you, Goualeuse?" asked the
Chourineur.

"I? _Mon Dieu!_ who was there to give me any playthings?" said the girl,
in a sad tone. "Well, the evening passed. Although it was in the depth
of winter, I only had on a little cotton gown, no stockings, no shift,
and with wooden shoes on my feet: that was not enough to stifle me with
heat, was it? Well, when the old woman took my hand, I burst out into a
perspiration from head to foot. What frightened me most was, that,
instead of swearing and storming as usual, she only kept on grumbling
between her teeth. She never let go my hand, but made me walk so
fast--so very fast--that I was obliged to run to keep up with her, and
in running I had lost one of my wooden shoes; and as I did not dare to
say so, I followed her with one foot naked on the bare stones. When we
reached home it was covered with blood."

"A one-eyed old devil's kin!" said the Chourineur, again thumping the
table in his anger. "It makes my heart quite cold to think of the poor
little thing trotting along beside th