[1] A liter is slightly more than a quart, a hectoliter a little more than one hundred quarts.—Translator. [↑]
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE COMMON CATERPILLAR
“I remember,” said Jules, “one Sunday last winter—it was some time in December or January, I think—the mayor had just posted a notice on the door of the town hall, and the people were reading it as they came from church. The notice was something about caterpillars, and the mayor had ordered their nests to be destroyed.”
“Yes,” rejoined Uncle Paul, “the mayor had in mind, luckily for us, the caterpillar law.”
“What! Is there a law about caterpillars, with a fine for disobeying it?”
“Yes, my boy, there is a law about caterpillars, and I thank the legislature that had the wisdom to pass it. God grant it may become a more general statute and include a greater number of our insect enemies, the June-bug especially, and that it may be strictly enforced!”
“But that would put people out, to have to leave their business and go and hunt for caterpillar-nests and burn them. At least, that’s what One-eyed John said when he read the mayor’s notice.”