"Yes," murmured the elder, "I am all right. I feel as if I had feathers under my head."

The two children hugged close to each other. Gavroche finished arranging them upon the mat 5 and pulled the coverlid up to their ears, then blew out the taper.

Hardly was the light extinguished when a singular tremor began to agitate the trellis under which the three children were lying. It was a multitude 10 of dull rubbings, which gave a metallic sound, as if claws and teeth were grinding the copper wire. This was accompanied by all sorts of little sharp cries.

The little boy of five, hearing this tumult over his head and shivering with fear, pushed the elder 15 brother with his elbow. Then the little boy ventured to accost Gavroche, but very low, and holding his breath: "Mister?"

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"Hey?" said Gavroche, who had just closed his

eyes.

"What is that?"

"It is the rats," answered Gavroche.

And he laid his head again upon the mat.

The rats, in fact, which swarmed by thousands in the carcass of the elephant, had been held in 25 awe by the flame of the candle so long as it burned;

but as soon as this cavern, which was, as it were,

their city, had been restored to night, smelling there what the good story-teller calls "some fresh meat," they had rushed in upon Gavroche's tent, climbed to the top, and were biting its meshes as if they were seeking to get through this new- 5 fashioned mosquito bar.

Still the little boy did not go to sleep.

"Mister?" he said again.

"Hey?" said Gavroche.

"What are the rats?"

This explanation reassured the child a little. He had seen some white mice in the course of his life, and he was not afraid of them. However, he raised his voice again: "Mister?"

"I had one," answered Gavroche. "I brought one here, but they ate her up for me."

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This second explanation undid the work of the 20 first, and the little fellow began to tremble. The

dialogue between him and Gavroche was resumed for the fourth time: "Mister?"

"Who was it that was eaten up?" "The cat."

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"Who was it that ate the cat?"

"The rats."

"The mice?"

"Yes, the rats."

5 The child, dismayed by these mice who ate cats, continued: "Mister, would those mice eat us?"

The child's terror was complete, but Gavroche added: "Don't be afraid. They can't get in. And then I am here. Here, take hold of my hand. Be 10 still!"

Gavroche at the same time took the little fellow's hand across his brother. The child clasped this hand against his body and felt safe. Courage and strength have such mysterious communica15 tions. It was once more silent about them, the sound of voices had startled and driven away the rats. In a few minutes they might have returned and done their worst in vain; the three boys, plunged in slumber, heard nothing more.

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20

Darkness covered the court of the Bastille; a cold wind, which mingled with the rain, blew in gusts, and patrolmen ransacked doors, alleys, yards, and dark corners, looking for nocturnal vagabonds. The elephant standing motionless, with open eyes 25 in the darkness, appeared to be in reverie and well satisfied with his good deeds, for he sheltered

from the heavens and from men the three poor, sleeping children.

ecstasy rapture. monologue: that which is spoken by one person alone. accosted: spoke to. bantering: talking playfully to one. Bastille the famous prison of Paris. - retrospective : looking back. recesses: secret places. sou a French coin of small value. encumbered: took up room.

colossus: a huge fig

agility: activity.

THE MISSISSIPPI

FRANÇOIS AUGUSTE CHATEAUBRIAND

CHATEAUBRIAND (1769–1848) was one of the most celebrated of the French writers of the Revolutionary period. He received his education in the college at Rennes. In early manhood, while 5 he was traveling in North America, he heard of the outbreak of the French Revolution. He hurried home to fight against the Republic. Being wounded at the siege of Thionville, he took refuge in England, where he lived in great poverty. In 1800 he returned to Paris and soon took rank among the foremost writers 10 of his day. Chateaubriand was a man of many oddities of character and often changed his views on even the most serious questions.

The story of Atala," from which this selection is taken, is one of his best known works.

France formerly possessed in North America a vast realm extending from Labrador to Florida, and from the shores of the Atlantic to the remotest lakes of upper Canada.

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Four great water courses, having their sources in the same mountains, divided this immense region : the St. Lawrence, which empties eastward into the gulf of like name; the River of the West, which 5 bears its waters to unknown seas; the Bourbon, which hurls itself from south to north into Hudson Bay; and the Mississippi, which falls from north to south into the Gulf of Mexico.

This last river, in a course of more than a thou10 sand leagues, waters a delicious land which the people of the United States call New Eden, and for which the French have left the harmonious name of Louisiana. Tributaries of the Mississippi, a thousand other rivers, the Missouri, the Illi15 nois, the Arkansas, the Ohio, the Wabash, the Tennessee, fatten this land with their silt and make it fertile with their waters. When all these streams are swollen with the floods of winter, when tempests have beaten down whole tracts of forests, 20 the uprooted trees gather at the river sources. Before long the mud cements them, vines enchain them, and plants, taking root in all directions, finish compacting these masses. Carried away by the foaming current, they descend to the Mississippi; 25 the river seizes them, sends them on to the gulf,

strands them upon sand banks, and increases thus