I offered it the kind of diet most appreciated by its supposed relatives, but never, never would it touch such food.

For whom did I take it?
Fie upon me! To offer ordure to an epicure! It required, if not precisely the truffle known to our _chefs_ and _gourmets_, at least its equivalent.
This characteristic I grasped only after patient investigation.

At the southern foot of the hills of Serignan, not far from the village, is a wood of maritime pines alternating with rows of cypress.

There, towards Toussaint, after the autumnal rains, you may find an abundance of the mushrooms or "toadstools" that affect the conifers; especially the delicious Lactaris, which turns green if the points are rubbed and drips blood if broken.

In the warm days of autumn this is the favourite promenade of the members of my household, being distant enough to exercise their young legs, but near enough not to fatigue them.
There one finds and sees all manner of things: old magpies' nests, great bundles of twigs; jays, wrangling after filling their crops with the acorns of the neighbouring oaks; rabbits, whose little white upturned scuts go bobbing away through the rosemary bushes; dung-beetles, which are storing food for the winter and throwing up their rubbish on the threshold of their burrows.