The maire asserted that _cerac_ was the true name of this recommendable article of food, _cere_ being the patois for the original word.

Others had told us that the real word was _serre_, meaning _compressed_ curds; but the French writers who treat learnedly of cheese-making in the _Annales de Chimie_ adopt the form _serets_; and in the _Annales Scientifiques de l'Auvergne_ I find both _seret_ and _serai_, from the Latin _serum_.

There was also bread, which arrived when we were sitting down to our meal: it had been baked in a huge ring, for convenience of carriage, and was brought up from the low-lands on a stick across a boy's shoulder.

When the old woman thought it safe to expose a greater dainty to our attacks, at a later period of the meal, she brought out a pot of _caille_, a delightful luxury which prevails in the form of nuggets of various size floating in sour whey.

Owing to a general want of table apparatus, we placed the pot of caille on a broken wall, and speared the nuggets with our pocket-knives.
After the meal, the two Frenchmen found themselves wet and exceedingly cold; for Frenchmen have not yet learned the blessing of flannel shirts under a broiling sun.