lo! between
the folds of the blanket peeped the face of a sleeping child.

"_Nom de Dieu!_" cried Aristide. "_Nom de Dieu de nom de Dieu!_"

He ought not to have said it, but his astonishment was great. He stared
at the baby, then up and down the road, then swept the horizon. Not a
soul was visible. How did the baby get there? The heavens, according to
history, have rained many things in their time: bread, quails, blood,
frogs, and what not; but there is no mention of them ever having rained
babies. It could not, therefore, have come from the clouds. It could not
even have fallen from the tail of a cart, for then it would have been
killed, or at least have broken its bones and generally been rendered a
different baby from the sound, chubby mite sleeping as peacefully as
though the Golgotha of Provence had been its cradle from birth. It could
not have come there accidentally. Deliberate hands had laid it down; in
the centre of the road, too. Why not by the side, where it would have
been out of the track of thundering automobiles? When the murderous
intent became obvious Aristide shivered and felt sick. He breathed
fierce and honest anathema on the heads of the bowelless fiends who had
abandoned the babe to its doom. Then he stooped and picked up the bundle
tenderly in his arms.

The wee face puckered for a moment and the wee limbs shot out
vigorously; then the dark eyes opened and stared Aristide solemnly and
wonderingly in the face. So must the infant Remus have first regarded
his she-wolf mother. Having ascertained, however, that it was not going
to be devoured, it began to cry lustily, showing two little white specks
of teeth in the lower gum.

"_Mon pauvre petit_, you are hungry," said Aristide, carrying it to the
car racked by the clattering engine. "I wonder when you last tasted
food? If I only had a little biscuit and wine to give you; but, alas!
there's nothing but petrol and corn-cure, neither of which, I believe,
is good for babies. Wait, wait, _mon cheri_, until we get to Salon.
There I promise you proper nourishment."

He danced the baby up and down in his arms and made half-remembered and
insane noises, which eventually had the effect of reducing it to its
original calm stare of wonderment.

"_Voila_," said Aristide, delighted. "Now we can advance."

He deposited it on the vacant seat, clambered up behind the wheel, and
started. But not at the break-neck speed of twenty miles an hour. He
went slowly