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DIAMONDS TO SIT ON
day seven people came in for dinner. They thought the dinner was excellent. The next day fourteen people came. There was hardly enough time to skin the beasts. Throughout the week everything went with a swing, and Father Theodore was already dreaming of opening a tannery when an absolutely unexpected thing happened. The co-operative stores had been closed for stocktaking for three weeks and they now re-opened. Out into the backyard, which was shared with Father Theodore, the co-operative workers rolled a barrel of rotten cabbage ; it was tossed on to the rubbish heap. Attracted by such an unusual smell all the rabbits ran to the heap. Next morning the rabbits were ill; they had been struck down with a curious disease which lasted for only three hours, but it laid the whole lot low. The breeders, the Utters, the large and the small rabbits, every single one of them died. Father Theodore was broken-hearted and could not do anything for two whole months. He was only just beginning to take heart again. And now he had come back from Hippolyte’s house, and to his wife’s surprise sat locked up in his bedroom. All this pointed to the fact that something else had come into his mind. She tapped gently at the bedroom door. There was no answer, but the chanting went on louder and louder. A minute later the door opened and Father Theodore’s face appeared in the opening. His face was flushed with excitement. ‘ My dear,’ he said rapidly, ‘ bring me some scissors. Quick ! ’ ‘ What about your supper ? ’ ‘ Oh, that can wait! ’ he retorted. He snatched the scissors out of her hand, locked himself up in the room again, and went up to the oval looking-glass on the wall. There was a popular picture hanging on the wall next to the looking-glass, called ‘ The Mirror of Sin ’. It was painted by hand,
