The Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Short Stories of Maupassant,
Volume 13, by Guy de Maupassant

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Title: Original Short Stories, Volume 13 (of 13)

Author: Guy de Maupassant

Last Updated: February 13, 2009
Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #3089]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAUPASSANT SHORT STORIES ***

Produced by David Widger

ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES

By Guy De Maupassant

Translated by:

ALBERT M. C. McMASTER, B.A.
A. E. HENDERSON, B.A.
MME. QUESADA and Others

VOLUME XIII.

OLD JUDAS
THE LITTLE CASK
BOITELLE
A WIDOW
THE ENGLISHMEN OF ETRETAT
MAGNETISM
A FATHERS CONFESSION
A MOTHER OF MONSTERS
AN UNCOMFORTABLE BED
A PORTRAIT
THE DRUNKARD
THE WARDROBE
THE MOUNTAIN POOL
A CREMATION
MISTI
MADAME HERMET
THE MAGIC COUCH

OLD JUDAS

This entire stretch of country was amazing; it was characterized by a
grandeur that was almost religious, and yet it had an air of sinister
desolation.

A great, wild lake, filled with stagnant, black water, in which
thousands of reeds were waving to and fro, lay in the midst of a vast
circle of naked hills, where nothing grew but broom, or here and there
an oak curiously twisted by the wind.

Just one house stood on the banks of that dark lake, a small, low house
inhabited by Uncle Joseph, an old boatman, who lived on what he could
make by his fishing. Once a week he carried the fish he caught into the
surrounding villages, returning with the few provisions that he needed
for his sustenance.

I went to see this old hermit, who offered to take me with him to his
nets, and I accepted.

His boat was old, worm-eaten and clumsy, and the skinny old man rowed
with a gentle and monotonous stroke that was soothing to the soul,
already oppressed by the sadness of the land round about.

It seemed to me as if I were transported to olden times, in the midst of
that ancient country, in that primitive boat, which was propelled by a
man of another age.

He took up his nets and threw the fish into the bottom of the boat, as