Then things began to happen. Houses were bombed, and people hustled out
in a hurry. You have seen some of those houses! The place was getting
too hot; and the order came for evacuation. Not much could be taken
away. Transport was difficult in those days! All the good food had to
be left behind, and we thought it would be a pity to waste it. Our chief
bought the lot at a reasonable price--merchants were thankful to sell.
So you see we did not need Aladdin's lamp."
"I don't _quite_ see!" I confessed. "Because, that's a long time ago,
and these oysters of Ostende----"
"Never saw Ostende!" he laughed. "They are a big bluff! We always have
them when"--he bowed--"we entertain distinguished guests. The Germans
used to print in their papers that we at Verdun could not hold out long,
because we were eating rats. So we took to cutting a dash with our
menus. We do not go into particulars and say that our oysters have kept
themselves fresh in tins!"
"But the wild boar?" I persisted. "Does one tin wild boar?"
"One does not! One goes out and shoots it. _Ma foi_, it's a good
adventure when the German guns are not asleep! The fruit? Ah, that is
easy! It comes as the air we breathe. And for our bonbons, the famous
sugared almonds of Verdun were not all destroyed when the factory blew
up."
With this he handed me a dish of the delicious things. "The story is,"
he said, "that a certain Abbess brought the secret of making these
almonds to Verdun.
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