"Yes, I agree that that would be more agreeable than walking on Pont-Neuf in such weather as this! But as it isn't probable that we can find places even as scullions, I think that, in order to avoid starvation, we had best allow ourselves to be kidnapped by a sergeant in the king's service, and decide to serve our country as best we can!" "What do you say, Plumard? Enlist--go into the army--carry a musket! Nay, nay! by all the devils, that is not my vocation! Though I should have to take another turn in my saddle girth and drink nothing but water, I propose to retain my liberty." "Oh, well! don't be so disturbed, my poor Bahuchet! you won't be enlisted. Indeed, you know very well that, even if you wanted to go for a soldier, they wouldn't take you! you're too small! you haven't the build!" Bahuchet bit his lips and elevated his nose, as he rejoined, with a mocking smile: "If they don't want short men in the army, I fancy they don't care much about having bald-headed ones either." "You are an ass, my boy; as a soldier never goes bareheaded, either in battle or on parade, he is entitled to have no hair if he pleases." "You lie; it's part of the uniform; soldiers have their hair dressed--they wear pigtails." "I have some hair at the back of my head, to make a pigtail if need be." "Oh! that would be very pretty! a pigtail hanging from a pate as bald as one's knee!" "It would be quite as pretty as a dwarf in uniform, whose sword dragged on the ground!" "Plumard, I believe that you are pining for a drubbing!" "No; but I am pining to administer one; that will warm me." "Indeed!--Well, I don't choose to receive one.--Look you, dear boy, it is hunger that embitters our dispositions and makes us quarrelsome. The proverb is very true: when there's no hay in the manger, the donkeys fight." "So you liken us to donkeys, eh?" "Plumard, that proverb was made for men as well as for beasts.--Speaking of beasts, cast your eye on that little dog running along yonder; how clean and plump he is!" "Are you inclined to eat that dog, I should like to know?" "I' faith! in default of other viands, it might not be so bad. You, who had an idea of going for a soldier, ought to know that in a town beleaguered and besieged by the enemy they eat everything: dogs, cats, rats!--Indeed, an old archer told me that one time, when he was in a besieged place, he ate birds that had been stuffed and kept under glass several years." "They must have made a sorry feast.--But the dog has stopped; if we could induce him to follow us, even if we had to use a little force, we could sell him to a dog fancier and get the wherewithal to gnaw a crust." "You are right--come; let us act as if we did not see him. I will go ahead, you stay behind, and we will surround the cur."