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 shell 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.”