"Oh papa, if you go out for another excursion during the holidays, I hope you will take me with you, for you see I know how to walk."
"Before we think about another journey, let us first finish the present. You seem to forget that the roughest part of our work is yet before us."
"Do you mean crossing the Terre-Froide?"
"No; we shall only take a glimpse at that; but in the Terre-Chaude, we may meet with many trials."
"Bah!" said Lucien, kissing me; "the Terre-Chaude is almost like home; I shall behave so well, that you will be able to tell mamma that I am quite a man."
The sun was up when I gave the order for starting. Sumichrast went so far as to suggest that, after such a disturbed night, it would be better to spend another day in our charming retreat.
"That's the way," I answered, "in which effeminacy gets the better of energy, and cowardice of courage! Let us behave with more boldness, and not be seduced into delaying our journey."
My companion accepted the reproof, and without further delay our party were en route.
The stream pointed out to us the road we were to follow; along the edge of it, sheltered by the bushes and enlivened by the birds which were fluttering about the banks, we shaped our course. Sumichrast showed us some dahlias—the flower which would be so perfect if it only possessed a perfume. It is a perennial in Mexico, whence it has been imported into Europe, and there grows to a height of about three feet, producing only single flowers of a pale yellow color. By means of cultivation, varieties have been obtained with double flowers of a hundred different tints, which are such ornaments in our gardens. Many a Mexican, who imports dahlias at a great expense, has not the least idea that the plant is indigenous to his own soil.
The roots of the dahlia, salted and boiled, are eaten by the Indians; it is a farinaceous food of a somewhat insipid taste. Certainly, the wild potato is not much better; and who can tell whether cultivation, after having enriched our gardens with its beautiful flowers, may not also furnish our tables with the bulbs of this plant rendered more succulent by horticulture.