Le Petit Chose Part 19

22. il avait pris les devants, 'he had gone on in front.'

26. Beaucaire: a fine town on the right bank of the Rhone.

It is connected with Tarascon by a splendid suspension-bridge, and is famous for its fair held annually in July, and frequented by many thousands of people.

Daudet gives a graphic account of it in _Numa Roumestan_.

Page 10.

2. Un parapluie: note the gender; nouns ending in _e_ mute preceded by a vowel are usually feminine. Other exceptions are _genie, incendie, lycee, musee_.

3. tout de meme, 'all the same.'

Page 11. (chapter ii. full=ii)

3. a cote de, 'by the side of,' 'beside.' Cf. note, p. 7 l. 13. Distinguish also _a cote_ and _de cote_; e.g. _il demeure a cote_, 'he lives close by'; _la maison d'a cote_ 'the next house'; _le tableau est de cote_ 'the picture is on one side'; _un regard de cote_, 'a side glance.'

7. large, 'broad,' _never_ 'large.'

8. le ciel riait, 'the sky was radiant.'

9. descendaient au fil de l'eau, 'were going down stream.'

19. ma foi! 'upon my word!' 'faith!' _not_ 'my faith!'

Never translate this expression literally.

Page 12.

3. serres les uns contre les autres, 'closely packed.'

9. a tatons, 'groping his way along.'

qui vive? 'who goes there?' The challenge of a French sentinel.

14. et en route, 'and moved off.'

21. ah! mon Dieu! see note, p. 8 l. 14.

23. me serra plus fort, 'grasped my hand more firmly.'

29. s'il parlait, je crois bien: on l'entendait d'une lieue, 'I should rather think it was talking, you could hear it a mile off.' The sentence is elliptical, _vous demandez_ being understood before _s'il_. Note the idiomatic use of _bien_, and cf. _je le veux bien_, 'I am _perfectly_ willing'; _voulez-vous bien vous en aller_, '_won't_ you go away!'

_je donnerais bien un franc_, 'I shouldn't mind giving a franc.'

30. trouble, 'agitation,' 'confusion,' _not_ 'trouble,'

the French for which is _peine, chagrin, douleur.

Les troubles_='rebellion,' 'rising,' e.g. _des troubles eclaterent en France_.

Page 13.

9. plus de Vendredi! plus de perroquet...plus possible: _plus_ is often used negatively without _ne_ when the verb is understood.

Trans. 'without a Friday, or a parrot, a Robinson would not be possible any longer.'

10. le moyen: elliptical for _dites-moi le moyen_.

Trans. 'how was it possible to...' or 'how could one...'

11. d'ailleurs, 'besides'; _ailleurs_='elsewhere.'

13. rue Lanterne: note omission of preposition and article.

28. le lendemain soir: note this is the correct way of expressing in French 'next evening'; cf. _le lendemain matin_.

Page 14.

17. s'y maria, 'got married there.' Note _marier_, 'to give in marriage,'

or 'to perform the marriage ceremony'; e.g. _le cure les a maries; se marier avec_, 'to be married to,' e.g. _elle s'est mariee avec Monsieur B_., or _elle a epouse Monsieur B_.

20. gros ouvrage, 'rough work.'

26. par exemple: see note, p. 3 l. 22.

27. lui non plus, 'either,' added for emphasis at the end of the sentence.

29. avait fini par le prendre en grippe, 'had at length taken a dislike to him.'

l'abreuvait de taloches, 'rapped his head at every turn.'

31. le fait est: a favourite expression of Daudet. It does not correspond to the English 'the fact is,' which generally denotes a contradiction, but rather strengthens what has been said.

Trans. 'indeed.'

Page 15.

2. perdait tous ses moyens, 'completely lost his wits.'

9. le voila qui prend: the use of _le voila_ is very emphatic; _voi_ is the imperative of _voir_, and _le voila=vois-le la_.

18. tu as beau lui dire, 'it is no use your telling him.' _Avoir beau_ + infinitive is ironical, and elliptical for _avoir beau temps pour_, i.e. to have a fine opportunity, but to no purpose; cf. the English 'it is all very _fine_ for you to tell him.'

19. tout de meme: see note, p. 10 l. 3.

30. pourvu qu'il ne lui soit rien arrive, 'I hope nothing has happened to him.'

31. parbleu: a euphemism for _pardieu_. Trans. 'why, of course not.'

Page 16.

15. recteur: as far as education is concerned, France is divided into seventeen _academies_, each under a _recteur_, who represents the _Ministre de l'instruction publique_.

24. de bonne foi, 'honestly'; cf. _de bon cur_, 'gladly'

(p. 35 l. 28); _de meilleur cur_, 'more cheerfully,'

'more willingly' (p. 49 l. 27).