ery dozen lemons that she sold, and on good
days she could earn some five or six sous. During the following year
she hawked caps at nine sous apiece, which proved a more profitable
business; only she had to keep a sharp look-out, as street trading of
this kind is forbidden unless one be licensed. However, she scented
a policeman at a distance of a hundred yards; and the caps forthwith
disappeared under her skirts, whilst she began to munch an apple with
an air of guileless innocence. Then she took to selling pastry, cakes,
cherry-tarts, gingerbread, and thick yellow maize biscuits on wicker
trays. Marjolin, however, ate up nearly the whole of her stock-in-trade.
At last, when she was eleven years old, she succeeded in realising a
grand idea which had long been worrying her. In a couple of months she
put by four francs, bought a small _hotte_,[*] and then set up as a
dealer in birds' food.

[*] A basket carried on the back.--Translator.

It was a big affair. She got up early in the morning and purchased her
stock of groundsel, millet, and bird-cake from the wholesale
dealers. Then she set out on her day's work, crossing the river, and
perambulating the Latin Quarter from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Rue
Dauphine, and even to the Luxembourg. Marjolin used to accompany her,
but she would not let him carry the basket. He was only fit to call out,
she said; and so, in his thick, drawling voice, he would raise the cry,
"Chickweed for the little birds!"

Then Cadine herself, with her flute-like voice, would start on a strange
scale of notes ending in a clear, protracted alto, "Chickweed for the
little birds!"

They each took one side of the road, and looked up in the air as they
walked along. In those days Marjolin wore a big scarlet waistcoat
which hung down to his knees; it had belonged to the defunct Monsieur
Chantemesse, who had been a cab-driver. Cadine for her part wore a white
and blue check gown, made out of an old tartan of Madame Chantemesse's.
All the canaries in the garrets of the Latin Quarter knew them; and, as
they passed along, repeating their cry, each echoing the other's voice,
every cage poured out a song.

Cadine sold water-cress, too. "Two sous a bunch! Two sous a bunch!" And
Marjolin went into the shops to offer it for sale. "Fine water-cress!
Health for the body! Fine fresh water-cress!"

However, the new central markets had just been erected, and the girl
would stand gazing in ecstacy at the aven