As my visits to the beech-clump were repeated, I managed to divide my finds into three categories. In the first, which was the most numerous, the mushroom was furnished underneath with little radiating flakes. In the second, the lower surface was lined with a thick pad pricked with hardly visible holes. In the third, it bristled with tiny spots similar to the papillæ on a cat’s tongue. The need of some order to assist the memory made me invent a classification for myself. Very much later there fell into my hands certain small books from which I learnt that my three categories were well known; they even had Latin names, which fact was far from displeasing to me. Ennobled by Latin which provided me with my first exercises and translations, glorified by the ancient language which the rector used in saying his mass, the mushroom rose in my esteem. To deserve so learned an appellation, it must possess a genuine importance. The same books told me the name of the one that had amused me so much with its smoking chimney. It is called the Puffball in English, but its French name is the Vesse-de-loup. I disliked the expression, which to my mind smacked of bad company. Next to it was a more decent denomination: Lycoperdon; but this was only so in appearance, for Greek roots sooner or later taught me that Lycoperdon means Vesse-de-loup and nothing else. How far off are those blessed times when my childish curiosity sought solitary exercise in making itself acquainted with the mushroom! “Eheu! Fugaces labuntur anni!” said Horace. Ah, yes, the years glide fleeting by, especially when they are nearing their end! They were once the merry brook that dallies among the willows on imperceptible slopes; to-day, they are the torrent swirling a thousand straws along as it rushes towards the abyss. [22] Can one imagine a more picturesque and original fashion of sketching the outline of one’s earliest memories? We have collected these memories, which he has scattered so profusely over the pages of his books, with pious care, because they so delightfully reveal a soul and a life that are akin to our own, more especially in their beginnings, and because they so wonderfully evoke an age and a country that were once ours and are still the possession of our grand-nephews.