u are aware that the slightest tear in these parts, or the
least resistance, would be enough to kill our subject at the moment of
his revival."

While speaking, he united example to precept and kept kneading the trunk
of the Colonel. As the spectators had too nearly filled the bath-room,
making it almost impossible to move, M. Nibor begged them to move into
the laboratory. But the laboratory became so full that it was necessary
to leave it for the parlor: the Committee of the Biological Society, had
scarcely a corner of the table on which to draw up their account of the
proceedings. The parlor even was crowded with people, the dining room
too, and so out to the court yard of the house. Friends, strangers,
people not at all known to the family, elbowed each other and waited in
silence. But the silence of a crowd is not much less noisy than the
rolling of the sea. Fat Doctor Martout, apparently overwhelmed with
responsibility, showed himself from time to time, and surged through the
waves of curious people like a galleon laden with news. Every one of his
words circulated from mouth to mouth, and spread even through the
street, where several groups of soldiers and citizens were making a
stir, in more senses than one. Never had the little "Rue de la
Faisanderie" seen such a crowd. An astonished passer-by stopped and
inquired:

"What's the matter here? Is it a funeral?"

"Quite the reverse, Sir."

"A christening, then?"

"With warm water!"

"A birth?"

"A being born again!"

An old judge of the Civil Court was recounting to a deputy the legend of
AEson of old, who was boiled in Medea's caldron.

"This is almost the same experiment," said he, "and I am inclined to
think that the poets have calumniated the sorceress of Colchis. There
could be some fine Latin verses made appropriate to this occasion; but I
no longer possess my old skill!

'Fabula Medeam cur crimine carpit iniquo?
Ecce novus surgit redivivus AEson ab undis
Fortior, arma petens, juvenili pectore miles ...,'

"Redivivus is taken in the active sense; it's a license, or at least a
bold construction. Ah! Monsieur! there was a time when I was, even among
those who made the most confident attempts, _the_ man for Latin verses!"

* * * * *

"Corp'ral!" said a conscript of the levy of 1859.

"What is it, Freminot?"

"Is it true that they are boiling an old soldier in a pot, and that they
are going to get him