the parrot and the tropical things than because of her punishment.

Little Antoinette had been born in the colonies, but, curiously enough,
she never seemed to value that fact, and they had very little charm for
her, indeed she scarcely remembered them. I would have given everything
I possessed in the world to have seen, if only for the briefest time,
one of those distant countries, inaccessible to me, as I well knew.

With a regret that was almost anguish I thought, alas! that in my life
as minister, live as long as I might, I would never, never see those
enchanting lands.




CHAPTER XV.



I will now describe a game that gave Antoinette and me the greatest
pleasure during those two delicious summers.

We pretended to be two caterpillars, and we would creep along the ground
upon our stomachs and our knees and hunt for leaves to eat. After having
done that for some time we played that we were very very sleepy, and we
would lie down in a corner under the trees and cover our heads with our
white aprons--we had become cocoons. We remained in this condition for
some time, and so thoroughly did we enter into the role of insects in
a state of metamorphosis, that any one listening would have heard pass
between us, in a tone of the utmost seriousness, conversations of this