I was looking to-day at a fine church in chalk, with real windows, price 6fr., and was thinking that one must be a Mark Tapley to buy it, and walk home with it under one's arm under present circumstances.

Many of the stallkeepers have in despair deserted the toy business, and gone in for comforters, kepis, and list soles.
Until the weather set in so bitterly cold, elderly sportsmen, who did not care to stalk the human game outside, were to be seen from morning to night pursuing the exciting sport of gudgeon-fishing along the banks of the Seine.

Each one was always surrounded by a crowd deeply interested in the chase.

Whenever a fish was hooked, there was as much excitement as when a whale is harpooned in more northern latitudes.

The fisherman would play it for some five minutes, and then, in the midst of the solemn silence of the lookers-on, the precious capture would be landed.