Page 98 - madame-bovary

paste, trusses, baths, hygienic chocolate,’ etc. And the sign-
board, which takes up all the breadth of the shop, bears in
gold letters, ‘Homais, Chemist.’ Then at the back of the shop,
behind the great scales fixed to the counter, the word ‘Labo-
ratory’ appears on a scroll above a glass door, which about
half-way up once more repeats ‘Homais’ in gold letters on
a black ground.
Beyond this there is nothing to see at Yonville. The street
(the only one) a gunshot in length and flanked by a few
shops on either side stops short at the turn of the highroad.
If it is left on the right hand and the foot of the Saint-Jean
hills followed the cemetery is soon reached.
At the time of the cholera, in order to enlarge this, a piece
of wall was pulled down, and three acres of land by its side
purchased; but all the new portion is almost tenantless; the
tombs, as heretofore, continue to crowd together towards
the gate. The keeper, who is at once gravedigger and church
beadle (thus making a double profit out of the parish corps-
es), has taken advantage of the unused plot of ground to
plant potatoes there. From year to year, however, his small
field grows smaller, and when there is an epidemic, he does
not know whether to rejoice at the deaths or regret the buri-
als.
‘You live on the dead, Lestiboudois!’ the curie at last
said to him one day. This grim remark made him reflect; it
checked him for some time; but to this day he carries on the
cultivation of his little tubers, and even maintains stoutly
that they grow naturally.
Since the events about to be narrated, nothing in fact