ns, all the lodgers retire, forced by their scanty
wages to sleep, perhaps, four in a room. M. Perdignier informed us that
study and instruction were such powerful ameliorators, that, during six
years, he had only one of his lodgers to expel. "In a few days," he
remarked, "the bad eggs find out, this is no place for them to addle
sound ones!" We are happy to hear, reader, public homage to a learned and
upright man, devoted to his fellow-workmen.

[28] The Wolves (among others) ascribe the institution of their company to
King Solomon. See the curious work by M. Agricole Perdignier, from which
the war-song is extracted.

CHAPTER L.

THE COMMON DWELLING-HOUSE

Whilst the Wolves, as we have just seen, prepared a savage attack on the
Devourers, the factory of M. Hardy had that morning a festal air,
perfectly in accordance with the serenity of the sky; for the wind was
from the north, and pretty sharp for a fine day in March. The clock had
just struck nine in the Common Dwelling-house of the workmen, separated
from the workshops by a broad path planted with trees. The rising sun
bathed in light this imposing mass of buildings, situated a league from
Paris, in a gay and salubrious locality, from which were visible the
woody and picturesque hills, that on this side overlook the great city.
Nothing could be plainer, and yet more cheerful than the aspect of the
Common Dwelling-house of the workmen. Its slanting roof of red tiles
projected over white walls, divided here and there by broad rows of
bricks, which contrasted agreeably with the green color of the blinds on
the first and second stories.

These buildings, open to the south and east, were surrounded by a large
garden of about ten acres, partly planted with trees, and partly laid out
in fruit and kitchen-garden. Before continuing this description, which
perhaps will appear a little like a fairy-tale, let us begin by saying,
that the wonders, of which we are about to present the sketch, must not
to be considered Utopian dreams; nothing, on the contrary, could be of a
more positive character, and we are able to assert, and even to prove
(what in our time is of great weight and interest), that these wonders
were the result of an excellent speculation, and represented an
investment as lucrative as it was secure. To undertake a vast, noble, and
most useful enterprise; to bestow on a considerable number of human
creatures an ideal prosperity, compared with the frightf