When twelve o"clock struck, he called out:
"Hullo, mother, is the soup ready?"
"There"s no soup for you, lazy-bones," cried the old woman from her kitchen.
He thought she must be joking, and waited a while. Then he begged, implored, swore, "tacked to the north" and "tacked to the south," and beat on the wall with his fists, but had to consent at last to five eggs being placed against his left side; after which he had his soup.
When his friends arrived that afternoon they thought he must be ill, he seemed so constrained and queer.
They started the daily game of dominoes. But Tome appeared to take no pleasure in it, and reached forth his hand very slowly, and with great precaution.
"What"s wrong with your arm?" asked Horslaville.
"I have a sort of stiffness in the shoulder," answered Toine.
Suddenly they heard people come into the inn. The players were silent.
It was the mayor with the deputy. They ordered two gla.s.ses of Extra-Special, and began to discuss local affairs. As they were talking in somewhat low tones Toine wanted to put his ear to the wall, and, forgetting all about his eggs, he made a sudden "tack to the north," which had the effect of plunging him into the midst of an omelette.
At the loud oath he swore his wife came hurrying into the room, and, guessing what had happened, stripped the bedclothes from him with lightning rapidity. She stood at first without moving or uttering a syllable, speechless with indignation at sight of the yellow poultice sticking to her husband"s side.
Then, trembling with fury, she threw herself on the paralytic, showering on him blows such as those with which she cleaned her linen on the seash.o.r.e. Tome"s three friends were choking with laughter, coughing, spluttering and shouting, and the fat innkeeper himself warded his wife"s attacks with all the prudence of which he was capable, that he might not also break the five eggs at his other side.
Tome was conquered. He had to hatch eggs, he had to give up his games of dominoes and renounce movement of any sort, for the old woman angrily deprived him of food whenever he broke an egg.
He lay on his back, with eyes fixed on the ceiling, motionless, his arms raised like wings, warming against his body the rudimentary chickens enclosed in their white sh.e.l.ls.
He spoke now only in hushed tones; as if he feared a noise as much as motion, and he took a feverish interest in the yellow hen who was accomplishing in the poultry-yard the same task as he.
"Has the yellow hen eaten her food all right?" he would ask his wife.
And the old woman went from her fowls to her husband and from her husband to her fowls, devoured by anxiety as to the welfare of the little chickens who were maturing in the bed and in the nest.
The country people who knew the story came, agog with curiosity, to ask news of Toine. They entered his room on tiptoe, as one enters a sick-chamber, and asked:
"Well! how goes it?"
"All right," said Toine; "only it keeps me fearfully hot."
One morning his wife entered in a state of great excitement, and declared:
"The yellow hen has seven chickens! Three of the eggs were addled."
Toine"s heart beat painfully. How many would he have?
"Will it soon be over?" he asked, with the anguish of a woman who is about to become a mother.
"It"s to be hoped so!" answered the old woman crossly, haunted by fear of failure.
They waited. Friends of Toine who had got wind that his time was drawing near arrived, and filled the little room.
Nothing else was talked about in the neighboring cottages. Inquirers asked one another for news as they stood at their doors.
About three o"clock Toine fell asleep. He slumbered half his time nowadays. He was suddenly awakened by an unaccustomed tickling under his right arm. He put his left hand on the spot, and seized a little creature covered with yellow down, which fluttered in his hand.
His emotion was so great that he cried out, and let go his hold of the chicken, which ran over his chest. The bar was full of people at the time. The customers rushed to Toine"s room, and made a circle round him as they would round a travelling showman; while Madame Toine picked up the chicken, which had taken refuge under her husband"s beard.
No one spoke, so great was the tension. It was a warm April day. Outside the window the yellow hen could be heard calling to her newly-fledged brood.
Toine, who was perspiring with emotion and anxiety, murmured:
"I have another now-under the left arm."
His" wife plunged her great bony hand into the bed, and pulled out a second chicken with all the care of a midwife.
The neighbors wanted to see it. It was pa.s.sed from one to another, and examined as if it were a phenomenon.
For twenty minutes no more hatched out, then four emerged at the same moment from their sh.e.l.ls.
There was a great commotion among the lookers-on. And Toine smiled with satisfaction, beginning to take pride in this unusual sort of paternity. There were not many like him! Truly, he was a remarkable specimen of humanity!
"That makes six!" he declared. "Great heavens, what a christening we"ll have!"
And a loud laugh rose from all present. Newcomers filled the bar. They asked one another:
"How many are there?"
"Six."
Toine"s wife took this new family to the hen, who clucked loudly, bristled her feathers, and spread her wings wide to shelter her growing brood of little ones.
"There"s one more!" cried Toine.
He was mistaken. There were three! It was an unalloyed triumph! The last chicken broke through its sh.e.l.l at seven o"clock in the evening. All the eggs were good! And Toine, beside himself with joy, his brood hatched out, exultant, kissed the tiny creature on the back, almost suffocating it. He wanted to keep it in his bed until morning, moved by a mother"s tenderness toward the tiny being which he had brought to life, but the old woman carried it away like the others, turning a deaf ear to her husband"s entreaties.
The delighted spectators went off to spread the news of the event, and Horslaville, who was the last to go, asked:
"You"ll invite me when the first is cooked, won"t you, Toine?"
At this idea a smile overspread the fat man"s face, and he answered:
"Certainly I"ll invite you, my son-in-law."
MADAME HUSSON"S "ROSIER"