: Original Short Stories — Volume 10 by Maupassant Guy De Henderson A E Translator McMaster Albert Cohn Translator Quesada Louise Charlotte Garstin Translator - Short stories French Translations into English

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ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES, VOLUME 10

Translated by:

ALBERT M. C. McMASTER, B.A. A. E. HENDERSON, B.A. MME. QUESADA and Others

THE CHRISTENING THE FARMER'S WIFE THE DEVIL THE SNIPE THE WILL WALTER SCHNAFF'S ADVENTURE AT SEA MINUET THE SON THAT PIG OF A MORIN SAINT ANTHONY LASTING LOVE PIERROT A NORMANDY JOKE FATHER MATTHEW

THE CHRISTENING

"Well doctor, a little brandy?"

"With pleasure."

The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid. Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish. Then he said:

"Ah! the charming poison! Or rather the seductive murderer, the delightful destroyer of peoples!

"You people do not know it the way I do. You may have read that admirable book entitled L'Assommoir, but you have not, as I have, seen alcohol exterminate a whole tribe of savages, a little kingdom of negroes--alcohol calmly unloaded by the barrel by red-bearded English seamen.

"Right near here, in a little village in Brittany near Pont-l'Abbe, I once witnessed a strange and terrible tragedy caused by alcohol. I was spending my vacation in a little country house left me by my father. You know this flat coast where the wind whistles day and night, where one sees, standing or prone, these giant rocks which in the olden times were regarded as guardians, and which still retain something majestic and imposing about them. I always expect to see them come to life and start to walk across the country with the slow and ponderous tread of giants, or to unfold enormous granite wings and fly toward the paradise of the Druids.

"Everywhere is the sea, always ready on the slightest provocation to rise in its anger and shake its foamy mane at those bold enough to brave its wrath.

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