obtaining timber.  The island was, indeed, so bare and naked, so scorched by the blazing sun, that life in it had become yet more perilous and terrible.  However, it occurred to the man and two of his companions to employ the timbers of which their huts were built; and one evening they put out to sea on some rotten beams, which they had fastened together with dry branches.  The wind carried them towards the coast.  Just as daylight was about to appear, the raft struck on a sandbank with such violence that the beams were severed from their lashings and carried out to sea.  The three poor fellows were almost engulfed in the sand.  Two of them sank in it to their waists, while the third disappeared up to his chin, and his companions were obliged to pull him out.  At last they reached a rock, so small that there was scarcely room for them to sit down upon it.  When the sun rose they could see the coast in front of them, a bar of grey cliffs stretching all along the horizon.  Two, who knew how to swim, determined to reach those cliffs.  They preferred to run the risk of being drowned at once to that of slowly starving on the rock.  But they promised their companion that they would return for him when they had reached land and had been able to procure a boat.”

“Ah, I know now!” cried little Pauline, clapping her hands with glee.  “It’s the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the crabs!”

“They succeeded in reaching the coast,” continued Florent, “but it was quite deserted; and it was only at the end of four days that they were able to get a boat.  When they returned to the rock, they found their companion lying on his back, dead, and half-eaten by crabs, which were still swarming over what remained of his body."[*]

     [*] In deference to the easily shocked feelings of the
     average English reader I have somewhat modified this
     passage.  In the original M. Zola fully describes the awful
     appearance of the body.—­Translator. 
A murmur of disgust escaped Lisa and Augustine, and a horrified grimace passed over the face of Leon, who was preparing the skins for the black-puddings.  Quenu stopped in the midst of his work and looked at Auguste, who seemed to have turned faint.  Only little Pauline was smiling.  In imagination the others could picture those swarming, ravenous crabs crawling all over the kitchen, and mingling gruesome odours with the aroma of the bacon-fat and onions.

“Give me the blood,” cried Quenu, who had not been following the story.

Auguste came up to him with the two cans, from which he slowly poured the blood, while Quenu, as it fell, vigorously stirred the now thickening contents of the pot.  When the cans were emptied, Quenu reached up to one of the drawers above the range, and took out some pinches of spice.  Then he added a plentiful seasoning of pepper.

“They left him there, didn’t they,” Lisa now asked of Florent, “and returned themselves in safety?”