"You lie, you little monster!" said the cheesemonger, irritably. "It was as bad iron as ever was sharpened."
"Not so hard as your heart, perhaps," answered Petit Jean; "but it was a great deal sharper than your wit; and if your cheese had not been like a millstone, it would have gone through it."
The monger of cheeses walked on all the faster for two or three women having come up, all of whom but one, an especial friend of his own, were laughing at the saucy boy's repartee.
"Ah, dear Dame Mathurine," cried Petit Jean, addressing the grave lady, "buy a new bodkin for your cloak. It wants one sadly, just to pin it up with a jaunty air."
"Don't Mathurine me, monkey," cried the old woman, walking on after the cheesemonger; and the boy, winking his eye to the other women, exclaimed aloud, "Well, you are wise. A new bodkin would only tear a hole in the old rag. She wore that cloak at her great-grandmother's funeral when she was ten years old, and that is sixty years ago; so it may well fear the touch of younger metal."
"Well, you rogue, what have you to say to me?" said a young and pretty woman, who had listened, much amused.
"Only that I have nothing good enough for your beautiful eyes," answered the boy, promptly; "though you have but to look at the things, to make them shine as if the sun was beaming on them."
This hit told well, and the pretty bourgeoise; very speedily purchased two or three articles from the stall. She had just paid her money, when Martin Grille, with a scared and haggard air, entered the booth, and asked the boy where his father was, without any previous salutation.
"Why, what is the matter with you, Martin?" asked Petit Jean, affectionately. "You come in like a stranger, and don't say a word to me about myself or yourself, and look as wild as the devil in a mystery. What is it you want with my father in such a hurry?"
"I am vexed and frightened, Petit Jean," replied poor Martin, with a sigh. "I am quite at my wit's end, who never was at my wit's end before. Your father may help me; but you can't help at all, my boy."