One could hear the children quarrelling in the next room.

There were Etienne, Pauline, Nana and little Victor Fauconnier.

It had been decided to lay a table for the four of them, and they had been told to be very good.

That squint-eyed Augustine who had to look after the stoves was to eat off her knees.
"Mamma! Mamma!" suddenly screamed Nana, "Augustine is dipping her bread in the Dutch oven!" The laundress hastened there and caught the squint-eyed one in the act of burning her throat in her attempts to swallow without loss of time a slice of bread soaked in boiling goose fat.

She boxed her ears when the young monkey called out that it was not true.