FINALE
routine of common life, bringing back the
past in all its grandeur, shutting out for
the moment the anxieties and cares of the
present !
Or, to turn to very trivial things, how
pleasing a novelty to the new-comer are the
street-cries, unique and often so melodious !
There is a pretty little song of the women
who have bird-seed to sell : " Grain d oiseau !
Grain d'oiseau ! " This is an early morn-
ing ditty. At any hour of the day you
may hear the tiny child-voice of the gamin
in the pathetic cadences of " The little sor-
rows " (les petits Chagrins), which, three or
four years ago, suggested a short pièce de
théâtre, a " curtain-raiser " which had a
great success—I think at the Gymnase.
The cry of the old clo'man has had still
greater fame, used by Charpentier in his
opera of Louise. There is a street scene
on Montmartre, in the early winter morning
before day-light. Louise and her mother
cross the top of the hill on their way to
the ateher. Paris lies below them, still
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