La
Debacle_ (_The Downfall_).

As long as these poor little things remained a burden to the house,
Antoine grumbled. They were useless mouths that lessened his own share.
He vowed, like his brother, that he would have no more children, those
greedy creatures who bring their parents to penury. It was something to
hear him bemoan his lot when they sat five at table, and the mother gave
the best morsels to Jean, Lisa, and Gervaise.

"That's right," he would growl; "stuff them, make them burst!"

Whenever Fine bought a garment or a pair of boots for them, he would
sulk for days together. Ah! if he had only known, he would never had had
that pack of brats, who compelled him to limit his smoking to four sous'
worth of tobacco a day, and too frequently obliged him to eat stewed
potatoes for dinner, a dish which he heartily detested.

Later on, however, as soon as Jean and Gervaise earned their first
francs, he found some good in children after all. Lisa was no longer
there. He lived upon the earnings of the two others without compunction,
as he had already lived upon their mother. It was a well-planned
speculation on his part. As soon as little Gervaise was eight years old,
she went to a neighbouring dealer's to crack almonds; she there earned
ten sous a day, which her father pocketed right royally, without even
a question from Fine as to what became of the money. The young girl was
next apprenticed to a laundress, and as soon as she received two francs
a day for her work, the two francs strayed in a similar manner into
Macquart's hands. Jean, who had learnt the trade of a carpenter, was
likewise despoiled on pay-days, whenever Macquart succeeded in catching
him before he had handed the money to his mother. If the money escaped
Macquart, which sometimes happened, he became frightfully surly. He
would glare at his wife and children for a whole week, picking a quarrel
for nothing, although he was, as yet, ashamed to confess the real cause
of his irritations. On the next pay-day, however, he would station
himself on the watch, and as soon as he had succeeded in pilfering the
youngster's earnings, he disappeared for days together.

Gervaise, beaten and brought up in the streets among all the lads of the
neighbourhood, became a mother when she was fourteen years of age. The
father of her child was not eighteen years old. He was a journeyman
tanner named Lantier. At first Macquart was furious, but he calmed
down somewhat w