Excerpt from Schoolboy Days in France Further away may be seen carts with gigantic horses harnessed to them, a train of cars Side-tracked on a switch, busy, bustling crews of workmen, white wreaths of steam rising in the air, all the turmoil and activity of a sugar refinery in full blast. It is Sunday to-day, and the Clocks have just struck eleven. But work goes on without cessation, day and night, at the works at this season of the year. The time lost during the hot months has to be made up, when Operations are suspended because the syrup sours. A Cheerful little fire is blazing on the hearth of the salon. We are in October, and although the approaches of winter are as yet scarcely perceptible, mamma's delicate health requires this precaution. Seated at the corner of the fireplace and with her back to the light, She is reading aloud Jules Verne's last romance for the entertainment of the family, While in the opposite corner grandpa, snugly wrapped in his warm dressing-gown, while pretending to give all his attention to the reading, keeps his eyes fixed on the clock and is evidently deeply interested in the movement of the creep ing hands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.