ices either in the shop or at the cradle. She could not,
therefore, have patience with the incessant anxiety which little
Jacques excited by his pranks.

One day Madame C---- had gone out for a walk, leaving the children
locked in a room above, five of them, two younger and two older
than Jacques; and these together had been in a state of riotous
insurrection the whole morning. Little Jacques was not of a
disposition to submit to ignominious imprisonment, when human
ingenuity could devise means of escape; while his brothers were
running wild together, he soberly hunted up another key, screwed and
scraped and got it into the key-hole; it turned, and he was out.

Half an hour afterwards, his mother, returning, caught the unfortunate
fugitive contemplatively perched on the edge of the fountain-basin. In
such a frenzy of anger as only unreasonable people are subject to,
she caught the child, shivering with terror, and thrust him into the
water. The gold-fish splashed and swirled, and the water streamed over
the sides of the basin. It was only an instant's work; snatching up
the forlorn fisher, she shook him unmercifully, and set him upon the
floor, dripping and breathless. I saw nothing of them until night.
His mother had then recovered her usual peevishness, weakness, and
inefficiency; the ebullition of energy had entirely subsided. I was
curious to know whether the summary punishment had had any effect upon
Jacques; but he was asleep, as soundly as usual after a day's hard
frolic.

My curiosity was likely to be gratified to satiety. A strange change
came over the little fellow after this. To one accustomed to his apish
activity, and to being annoyed by it, there was something plaintive
in the fact of having got rid of that trouble. The child was silent,
mopish, "good," as his mother said, congratulating herself on the
effect of her summary visitation upon the offender.

When, however, a month passed without any return of the evil
propensities, this continued quiescence grew to be something ghostly,
and, to people who had only their own hands to depend on for a living,
a subject of anxiety and alarm: it was expensive to clothe and feed a
child who promised but little service in future.

"The _enfant_ will never come to anything," said Monsieur; "we could
better have spared him than Jean."

To which his wife shook her head, and solemnly assented.

The '_enfant_,' however, gave no signs of taking the hint. Day after