r will catch the chirping of a grasshopper inaudible to me. He lends
me his sight and hearing, and I in return make him free of my thoughts,
which he welcomes attentively, raising his wide blue eyes questioningly
to mine.

What an adorable thing is the first blossoming of the intellect! Best of
all ages is that when the candid curiosity awakens and commences to
acquire knowledge of every kind. Little Paul has his own insectorium, in
which the Scarabaeus makes his balls; his garden, the size of a
handkerchief, in which he grows haricot beans, which are often dug up to
see if the little roots are growing longer; his plantation, containing
four oak-trees an inch in height, to which the acorns still adhere.
These serve as diversions after the arid study of grammar, which goes
forward none the worse on that account.

What beautiful and useful knowledge the teaching of natural history
might put into childish heads, if only science would consider the very
young; if our barracks of universities would only combine the lifeless
study of books with the living study of the fields; if only the red tape
of the curriculum, so dear to bureaucrats, would not strangle all
willing initiative. Little Paul and I will study as much as possible in
the open country, among the rosemary bushes and arbutus. There we shall
gain vigour of body and of mind; we shall find the true and the
beautiful better than in school-books.

To-day the blackboard has a rest; it is a holiday. We rise early, in
view of the intended expedition; so early that we must set out fasting.
But no matter; when we are hungry we shall rest in the shade, and you
will find in my knapsack the usual viaticum--apples and a crust of
bread. The month of May is near; the Sisyphus should have appeared. Now
we must explore at the foot of the mountain, the scanty pastures through
which the herds have passed; we must break with our fingers, one by one,
the cakes of sheep-dung dried by the sun, but still retaining a spot of
moisture in the centre. There we shall find Sisyphus, cowering and
waiting until the evening for fresher pasturage.

Possessed of this secret, which I learned from previous fortuitous
discoveries, little Paul immediately becomes a master in the art of
dislodging the beetle. He shows such zeal, has such an instinct for
likely hiding-places, that after a brief search I am rich beyond my
ambitions. Behold me the owner of six couples of Sisyphus beetles: an
unheard-of n