othing!"

For fear the turnkey should have fresh motive for staying, in order to
repress any row, the Skeleton quietly replied:

"That is not what I mean; I am the captain of this room, and ought to be
attended to,--ought not I, turnkey?"

"Certainly," replied the superintendent; "no interruption; and go on,
Pique-Vinaigre, and make haste, will you, my lad?"

"Then," resumed Pique-Vinaigre, "Gringalet, seeing how all the world
forsook him, resigned himself to his miserable fate. It was broad day,
and all the boys were going out with their animals. Cut-in-Half opened
the trap, and called each to give him his morsel of bread. They all
descended the ladder, and Gringalet, more dead than alive, squeezed up
in a corner of the cock-loft with his tortoise, did not move, but
watched his companions as they descended one after the other, and would
have given everything he had to have done as they did. At length the
last quitted the loft, and then his heart beat quick as he thought his
master might forget him. But Cut-in-Half, who was standing at the foot
of the ladder, exclaimed in a loud voice, 'Gringalet! Gringalet!' 'Here
I am, master.' 'Come down directly, or I'll fetch you!' added
Cut-in-Half; and Gringalet believed his last hour was come. 'Oh,' said
he to himself as he trembled in all his limbs, and recollected his
dream, 'you are in the web, little fly, the spider is going to eat you!'
After having put his tortoise quietly down on the ground, he said
farewell to it, for he had become fond of the creature, and went to the
trap, and put his leg on the ladder to go down, when Cut-in-Half, taking
hold of his miserable little leg, as thin as a stick, pulled him down so
suddenly that Gringalet lost his hold, and fell with his face all down
the rounds of the ladder."

"What a pity it was that the Doyen of La Petite Pologne was not there at
that moment! What a dance he could have played to Cut-in-Half!" said the
blue nightcap; "it is at such moments as these that a man is always
happy and contented to feel how useful it is sometimes to be strong."

"That's all right, my lad, but, unfortunately, the Doyen was not there,
so Cut-in-Half seized hold of the child by the waistband of his little
breeches, and carried him to his own hole of a chamber, where the huge
monkey was kept fastened to the foot of his bed. Directly the spiteful
beast saw the boy, he began to jump and spring about, grinding his teeth
like a mad thing, and dar