“A short time before Christmas my gardener’s wife presented him with a boy.  The husband asked me to stand as god-father.  I could hardly deny the request, and so he borrowed ten francs from me for the cost of the christening, as he said.

“The second day of January was chosen as the date of the ceremony.  For a week the earth had been covered by an enormous white carpet of snow, which made this flat, low country seem vast and limitless.  The ocean appeared to be black in contrast with this white plain; one could see it rolling, raging and tossing its waves as though wishing to annihilate its pale neighbor, which appeared to be dead, it was so calm, quiet and cold.

“At nine o’clock the father, Kerandec, came to my door with his sister-in-law, the big Kermagan, and the nurse, who carried the infant wrapped up in a blanket.  We started for the church.  The weather was so cold that it seemed to dry up the skin and crack it open.  I was thinking of the poor little creature who was being carried on ahead of us, and I said to myself that this Breton race must surely be of iron, if their children were able, as soon as they were born, to stand such an outing.

“We came to the church, but the door was closed; the priest was late.

“Then the nurse sat down on one of the steps and began to undress the child.  At first I thought there must have been some slight accident, but I saw that they were leaving the poor little fellow naked completely naked, in the icy air.  Furious at such imprudence, I protested: 

“‘Why, you are crazy!  You will kill the child!’

“The woman answered quietly:  ’Oh, no, sir; he must wait naked before the Lord.’

“The father and the aunt looked on undisturbed.  It was the custom.  If it were not adhered to misfortune was sure to attend the little one.

“I scolded, threatened and pleaded.  I used force to try to cover the frail creature.  All was in vain.  The nurse ran away from me through the snow, and the body of the little one turned purple.  I was about to leave these brutes when I saw the priest coming across the country, followed. by the sexton and a young boy.  I ran towards him and gave vent to my indignation.  He showed no surprise nor did he quicken his pace in the least.  He answered: 

“’What can you expect, sir?  It’s the custom.  They all do it, and it’s of no use trying to stop them.’

“‘But at least hurry up!’ I cried.

“He answered:  ‘But I can’t go any faster.’

“He entered the vestry, while we remained outside on the church steps.  I was suffering.  But what about the poor little creature who was howling from the effects of the biting cold.

“At last the door opened.  He went into the church.  But the poor child had to remain naked throughout the ceremony.  It was interminable.  The priest stammered over the Latin words and mispronounced them horribly.  He walked slowly and with a ponderous tread.  His white surplice chilled my heart.  It seemed as though, in the name of a pitiless and barbarous god, he had wrapped himself in another kind of snow in order to torture this little piece of humanity that suffered so from the cold.