"The devil! that's a good idea! but what about the gift to my future
father-in-law?"

"You have six partridges and a hare! I don't believe you need all that
to satisfy your hunger, do you?"

"But if we undertake to cook it here, without a spit or fire-dogs, we
shall burn it to a cinder!"

"Oh! no," said little Marie; "I'll agree to cook it for you in the ashes
so it won't smell of smoke. Didn't you ever catch larks in the fields,
and haven't you cooked them between two stones? Ah! true! I forget that
you never tended sheep! Come, pluck that partridge! Not so hard! you'll
pull off the skin!"

"You might pluck another one to show me how!"

"What! do you propose to eat two? What an ogre! Well, there they are all
plucked, and now I'll cook them."

"You would make a perfect _cantinière_, little Marie; but unluckily you
haven't any canteen, and I shall be reduced to drink water from this
pool."

"You'd like some wine, wouldn't you? Perhaps you need coffee, too? you
imagine you're at the fair under the arbor! Call the landlord: liquor
for the cunning ploughman of Belair!"

"Ah! bad girl, you're laughing at me, are you? You wouldn't drink some
wine, I suppose, if you had some?"