Vireîogne, a fictitious place

41. 4. détruit par les Prussiens, during the Franco- Prussian war of 1870-1871, when France was invaded by the German army.

41. 8. nous autres, idiom, familiar expression; in translation simply omit autres. The term is very old. It appears in the form of nos otros in one of the earliest documents of French literature, the Life of St.

Alexis , of the llth century. It may be intresting to note that nosotros has been kept in another romance language, in Spanish, and is still used to-day for the pronoun us.

41. 14. un bout de berge, a bit of landscape with a lake {berge = bank). The word bout means properly end, but is sometimes used colloquially for a bit.

41. 20. sensation du bonheur coudoyé; coudoyer = to elbow. Translate : a feeling thàt you hâve just rubbed elbows with happiness.

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On péchait là-dedans... is somewhat less

formai than on y péchait. . .

par places, in some places.

là-dedans. See note to p. 42, 1. 4. les Sauvage. Proper names in French do not take an s in the plural.

43. 1. son long pas d'échassier, his long strides like a crâne. Echassier désignâtes ail longlegged birds; from échasse (f.), stilt. 43. 8. s'engagea, enlisted.

43. 14. du reste, besides; hère: however. 43. 18. d'ailleurs; bere: moreover.

43. 18. C'est affaire aux hommes = c'est une affaire qui appartient aux hommer. Translate: That is men's business.

43. 20. sans éclarcie; éclarcie, properly: a clear spot in a cloudy sky. Translate: without anything to cheer them up.