y
safety.

"No, certainly not; but to-morrow, when I get up."

"Ah, to-morrow!" with a sigh of relief. "I do assure you, monsieur, zat it
will be complete. At ze moment of ze deflexion of monsieur le gouverneur
zare was not ze time. Of course it is imposseeble in Cancale to have ze
grand bain of Paris, but then zare is still something,--a bath quite
special, simple, and of ze people. Remember, monsieur, it is Baeader."

And so, with a cheery "Bon soir" from madame, and a profound bow from
Baeader, I fell asleep.

The next morning I was awakened by a rumbling in the lower hold, as if the
cargo was being shifted. Then came a noise like the moving of heavy
barrels on the upper deck forward of the companionway. The next instant my
door was burst open, and in stalked two brawny, big-armed fish-girls,
yarn-stockinged to their knees, and with white sabots and caps. They were
trundling the lower half of a huge hogshead.

"Pour le bain, monsieur," they both called out, bursting into laughter, as
they rolled the mammoth tub behind my bed, grounded it with a revolving
whirl, as a juggler would spin a plate, and disappeared, slamming the door
behind them, their merriment growing fainter as they dropped down the
companionway.

I peered over the head-board, and discovered the larger half of an
enormous storage-barrel used for packing fish, with fresh saw-marks
indenting its upper rim. Then I shouted for Baeader.

Before anybody answered, there came another onslaught, and in burst the
same girls, carrying a great iron beach-kettle filled with water. This,
with renewed fits of laughter, they dashed into the tub, and in a flash
were off again, their wooden sabots clattering down the steps.

There was no mistaking the indications; Baeader's bath had arrived.

I climbed up, and, dropping in with both feet, avoiding the splinters and
the nails, sat on the sawed edge, ready for total immersion. Before I
could adjust myself to its conditions there came another rush along the
companionway, accompanied by the same clatter of sabots and splashing of
water. There was no time to reach the bed, and it was equally evident that
I could not vault out and throw myself against the door. So I simply
ducked down, held on, and shouted, in French, Normandy patois, English:--

"Don't come in! Don't open the door! Leave the water outside!" and the
like. I might as well have ruined my throat on a Cancale lugger driving
before a gale. In burst the d