ee weeks later, towards half-past eleven, one beautiful sunshiny day,
Gervaise and Coupeau, the zinc-worker, were each partaking of a plum
preserved in brandy, at "l'Assommoir" kept by Pere Colombe. Coupeau, who
had been smoking a cigarette on the pavement, had prevailed on her to
go inside as she returned from taking home a customer's washing; and her
big square laundress's basket was on the floor beside her, behind the
little zinc covered table.

Pere Colombe's l'Assommoir was at the corner of Rue des Poissonniers
and Boulevard de Rochechouart. The sign, in tall blue letters stretching
from one end to the other said: Distillery. Two dusty oleanders
planted in half casks stood beside the doorway. A long bar with its
tin measuring cups was on the left as you entered. The large room was
decorated with casks painted a gay yellow, bright with varnish, and
gleaming with copper taps and hoops.

On the shelves above the bar were liquor bottles, jars of fruit
preserved in brandy, and flasks of all shapes. They completely covered
the wall and were reflected in the mirror behind the bar as colorful
spots of apple green, pale gold, and soft brown. The main feature of
the establishment, however, was the distilling apparatus. It was at the
rear, behind an oak railing in a glassed-in area. The customers could
watch its functioning, long-necked still-pots, copper worms disappearing
underground, a devil's kitchen alluring to drink-sodden work men in
search of pleasant dreams.

L'Assommoir was nearly empty at the lunch hour. Pere Colombe, a heavy
man of forty, was serving a ten year old girl who had asked him to
place four sous' worth of brandy into her cup. A shaft of sunlight came
through the entrance to warm the floor which was always damp from the
smokers' spitting. From everything, the casks, the bar, the entire room,
a liquorish odor arose, an alcoholic aroma which seemed to thicken and
befuddle the dust motes dancing in the sunlight.

Coupeau was making another cigarette. He was very neat, in a short blue
linen blouse and cap, and was laughing and showing his white teeth.
With a projecting under jaw and a slightly snub nose, he had handsome
chestnut eyes, and the face of a jolly dog and a thorough good fellow.
His coarse curly hair stood erect. His skin still preserved the softness
of his twenty-six years. Opposite to him, Gervaise, in a thin black
woolen dress, and bareheaded, was finishing her plum which she held
by the st