m a time when all the
men were shepherds and all the women shepherdesses--which tell us of
nothing but sheep and wolves.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Louisa and Frederick sing, their mouths round as flowers, and their song
rises shrill and clear on the morning air. But suddenly the sound
catches in Frederick's wind pipe.

What power invisible has strangled the song in this schoolboy throat?
It is fear. Each day inevitably, at the end of the village street, he
meets the dog that belongs to the big butcher, and each day his heart
shrivels and his legs grow weak at the sight. It is not the pig man's
dog ever attacks or menaces him. He just sits peaceably on the
threshold of his master's shop. But he is black, and his eyes are
fixed and bloodshot, and sharp, white teeth show beneath his baboon
jaws. He is terrifying. And then he sits there in the midst of all
sorts of meat cut up for pies and hashes, and seems the more terrible
on that account. Of course no one supposes he has been the cause of
all this carnage, but he presides over it. He's a fierce dog, the pig
man's. And so, as far away as Frederick can see him in the doorway, he
picks up a big stone, following the example of men he has seen arm
themselves in this way against surly dogs, and goes hugging the wall
of the house across the street from the pig butcher's closely.

[Illustration: THEY SING LIKE THE NIGHTINGALE BECAUSE THEIR HEARTS ARE
GAY. THEY SING AN OLD SONG THAT THEIR GRANDMOTHERS SANG WHEN THEY WERE
LITTLE GIRLS AND WHICH ONE DAY THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN WILL SING, FOR
SONGS ARE FRAIL IMMORTALS WHICH FLY FROM LIP TO LIP THROUGHOUT THE AGES.

_Printed in France_]

This time he has followed this practice, but Louisa mocks at him.

She has taken none of these violent precautions, against which people
always arm themselves more violently still. No, she doesn't even speak
to him, but keeps on singing, only changing her tone in such a mocking
way that Frederick grows red to his ears. Then there is great travail in
his little head. He understands that he must fear fear as much as
danger. And he is afraid to be afraid.

[Illustration]

And so, when school is out, and he sees the pig man's dog again, he
stalks by that astonished animal proudly.

History adds that he looked at Louisa out of the corner of his eye to
see if she were looking. It must be admitted that with no ladies or
young maidens in the world men might be less brave.

CATH