A friend of mine has seen his horrid countenance, as it hung festering and blackening in the wind, and remembers, by way of amusement, between schools, pelting the body with stones.

Transport to Africa thine eldest born, And let gaunt hunger blanch thy peasants' lips? Make poorly paid officials banded knaves? Drive starving sons by thousands from thy shore, Or let them rot in Abyssinian graves, And hide the cancer festering at thy core?

Before they retired Madame Guix asked if there were any who felt the slightest ill, for it were better to nip sickness in the bud, and she cheerfully lanced festers and pricked blisters, bathed, powdered and bandaged the feet of some dozen old and decrepit men and young children unaccustomed to such forced marching and unable to take proper care of themselves for want of time and hot water!

Stripped itself of all its lush luxuriance, and left for a vestige only this little fester of its gashes.