breaking into a cupboard!

It happened that the Convent preserves were kept in the room wherein he
was confined. Their odour attracted him, and he climbed up, by means of
a table and chair, to the closet in which they were stored. He found a
splendid pot of preserves. He opened it; and though he had no spoon,
he used his fingers and soon emptied the pot. What a delicious treat he
enjoyed enough to make him forget the pleasures of the Carnival.

Jasmin was about to replace the empty pot, when he heard the click-clack
of a door behind him. He looked round, and saw the Superior, who had
unlocked the door, and come to restore the boy to liberty. Oh, unhappy
day! When the Abbe found the prisoner stealing his precious preserves,
he became furious. "What! plundering my sweetmeats?" he cried. "Come
down, sirrah, come down! no pardon for you now." He pulled Jasmin from
his chair and table, and the empty jar fell broken at his feet. "Get
out, get out of this house, thou imp of hell!" And taking Jasmin by the
scruff of the neck, he thrust him violently out of the door and into the
street.

But worse was yet to come. When the expelled scholar reached the street,
his face and mouth were smeared with jam. He was like a blackamoor. Some
urchins who encountered him on his homeward route, surmised that his
disguise was intended as a masque for the Carnival. He ran, and they
pursued him. The mob of boys increased, and he ran the faster. At
last he reached his father's door, and rushed in, half dead with pain,
hunger, and thirst. The family were all there--father, mother, and
children.

They were surprised and astonished at his sudden entrance. After kissing
them all round, he proceeded to relate his adventures at the Seminary.
He could not tell them all, but he told enough. His narrative was
received with dead silence. But he was thirsty and hungry. He saw a pot
of kidney-bean porridge hanging over the fire, and said he would like to
allay his hunger by participating in their meal. But alas! The whole of
it had been consumed. The pot was empty, and yet the children were not
satisfied with their dinner. "Now I know," said the mother, "why
no white bread has come from the Seminary." Jasmin was now greatly
distressed. "Accursed sweetmeats," he thought. "Oh! what a wretch I am
to have caused so much misery and distress."

The children had eaten only a few vegetables; and now there was another
mouth to fill. The fire had almost expired