ce, but you may get
along in a country cart, or hire a nag."

As I had no objection to seeing something of the country, I did not
complain of this, and as soon as it was daylight I turned out.

Being anxious not to lose time, I got Captain Long to send me ashore
with my valise. A small cabaret being open, I intended to take up my
quarters there until I could obtain some means of conveyance to the
Chateau La Touche. A cup of coffee, which was at once offered me,
enabled me to wait until a more substantial breakfast was prepared.

In the meantime I took a stroll through the village. It was a small
place, and, as far as I could judge, primitive in the extreme. It was
the first time I had been in France, yet, as I spoke the language pretty
well, I felt myself perfectly at home. Indeed, the people I addressed
took me for a Frenchman, and were extremely civil.

On getting back to the inn, the landlady asked me if I had been to see
the wonderful animal which had been landed some time before by a
fisherman, who had found him, she said, on board a vessel, navigating
her all by himself.

"What sort of an animal?" I inquired.

"Ah, monsieur, they say it is a bear. It certainly looks like one, for
it has a bear's head and claws, and a tail; but it does all sort of
things that no other bear that I have heard of can do; and what is more
strange, it can talk, though no one can understand what it says."

"I must go and have a look at this bear after breakfast," I said.

"Certainly monsieur would not leave our village without seeing so great
a wonder," she replied. "My boy Pierre can show you the way. Jacques
Chacot, who is the fortunate possessor of the bear, lives not more than
a quarter of a league away to the west. He charges half a franc to each
person to whom be shows his wonder, and the people come from far and
near. He talks of taking his bear to Paris to exhibit it, and if he
does he will surely make a fortune."

Though I was somewhat incredulous as to whether the bear could really
speak, and had also a doubt as to the way the woman said the animal had
been found, I felt curious to see it; and as soon as I had breakfasted,
conducted by Pierre, I set out for the cottage of Jacques Chacot. On
the way the boy amused me by giving further accounts of the strange
animal we were to see.

We found a number of other people going in the same direction, for my
landlady had given no exaggerated account of the curiosi