"
"And I will make the addition on your hide. I'll set down seventeen and
carry naught."
For fear the keeper should find a new reason for remaining in order to
prevent a possible quarrel, Skeleton answered calmly:
"That is not the question. I have the ruling of the hall, and I must be
obeyed; is it not so, keeper?"
"It is true," said the officer. "Do not interrupt. And you, Pique-Vinaigre,
go on; but make haste, my boy."
"Then," resumed Pique-Vinaigre, continuing his story, "Gringalet, seeing
himself abandoned, gave himself up to his unhappy fate. Broad daylight
came, and all the children prepared to depart with their beasts.
Cut-in-half opened the trap and called the roll, in order to give each one
his piece of bread; all descended the ladder, and Gringalet, more dead than
alive, crouching in a corner of the garret, moved no more than it did; he
saw his companions going off one after the other; he would have given
anything to do as they did. Finally, they were all gone. The heart of the
poor child beat strongly; he hoped that, perhaps, his master would forget
him. Ah, well, he heard Cut-in-half at the foot of the ladder, cry in a
harsh voice: 'Gringalet! Gringalet!' 'Here I am, master.'
"'Come down at once, or I'll fetch you,' answered Cut-in-half. Gringalet
thought his last day was come.
"'I must,' he said to himself, trembling in every limb, and remembering his
dream, 'now you _are_ in for it, little fly: the spider is going to eat
you.
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