Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1885 — Why Hugo Slighted the Cheese. [ARTICLE]

Why Hugo Slighted the Cheese.

Jeanne Hugo, the granddaughter and the idol of the poet, having manifested a strong objection to learning the alphabet, her mother, thinking to sharpen her energies, told her one day that until she had learned the first twelve letters she would have no dessert. The first thing the child did was to pour out her troubles to grandpapa, ever ready to listen, but on this occasion powerless to interfere. to lighten the privation of his little darling, he proposed to her that they should suffer together—he would touch no dessert so long as she had to abstain. Jeanne approved the arrangement. For many days Victor Hugo persistently refuted dessert, alleging various reasons for not partaking of it. But one evening, Jeanne having gone to bed before dinner, a certain kind of cheese, of which he was particularly fond, was placed upon the table. The savory odor assailed his nostrils, and Hugo had almost broken his engagement, when he suddenly remembered the solemn promise made to the child, and checked himself, much to the amazement of his daughter-in-law, Jeanne’s mother. That lady, suspecting something mysterious, appealed to him to tell her the meaning of his strange behavior. Seeing there was, no help for it, Victor Hugo very meekly cast down his eyes and made a clean breast of it.—Jfaz O’Hell.