“Everywhere is the sea, always ready on the slightest provocation to rise in its anger and shake its foamy mane at those bold enough to brave its wrath.

“And the men who travel on this terrible sea, which, with one motion of its green back, can overturn and swallow up their frail barks—­they go out in the little boats, day and night, hardy, weary and drunk.  They are often drunk.  They have a saying which says:  ’When the bottle is full you see the reef, but when it is empty you see it no more.’

“Go into one of their huts; you will never find the father there.  If you ask the woman what has become of her husband, she will stretch her arms out over the dark ocean which rumbles and roars along the coast.  He remained, there one night, when he had had too much to drink; so did her oldest son.  She has four more big, strong, fair-haired boys.  Soon it will be their time.

“As I said, I was living in a little house near Pont-l’Abbe.  I was there alone with my servant, an old sailor, and with a native family which took care of the grounds in my absence.  It consisted of three persons, two sisters and a man, who had married one of them, and who attended to the garden.

“A short time before Christmas my gardener’s wife presented him with a boy.  The husband asked me to stand as god-father.  I could hardly deny the request, and so he borrowed ten francs from me for the cost of the christening, as he said.

“The second day of January was chosen as the date of the ceremony.  For a week the earth had been covered by an enormous white carpet of snow, which made this flat, low country seem vast and limitless.  The ocean appeared to be black in contrast with this white plain; one could see it rolling, raging and tossing its waves as though wishing to annihilate its pale neighbor, which appeared to be dead, it was so calm, quiet and cold.

“At nine o’clock the father, Kerandec, came to my door with his sister-in-law, the big Kermagan, and the nurse, who carried the infant wrapped up in a blanket.  We started for the church.  The weather was so cold that it seemed to dry up the skin and crack it open.  I was thinking of the poor little creature who was being carried on ahead of us, and I said to myself that this Breton race must surely be of iron, if their children were able, as soon as they were born, to stand such an outing.

“We came to the church, but the door was closed; the priest was late.

“Then the nurse sat down on one of the steps and began to undress the child.  At first I thought there must have been some slight accident, but I saw that they were leaving the poor little fellow naked completely naked, in the icy air.  Furious at such imprudence, I protested: 

“‘Why, you are crazy!  You will kill the child!’

“The woman answered quietly:  ’Oh, no, sir; he must wait naked before the Lord.’

“The father and the aunt looked on undisturbed.  It was the custom.  If it were not adhered to misfortune was sure to attend the little one.