[ Diable! ] c'est qu'il est capricieux, le bonhomme!
A boy looked at a note on this phrase, and found: "capricieux, akin to Latin capra (a goat)." Next day, he brought his translation, which ran thus:
"The good man is devilishly like a goat."
The next two "howlers" were indulged in by my boys, as we were reading Jules Sandeau's Mademoiselle de la Seiglière.
The Baroness de Vaubert says to the Marquis de la Seiglière: "Calmez-vous."
A boy having translated this by "Calm yourself," I observed to him:
"Couldn't you give me something more colloquial?"
Boy, after a moment's reflection:
"Keep your hair on, old man."