But you, which do you prefer ?" "My dear master, how can I choose out of so many jewels, when each one is perfect in its beauty?
You flash pearls, emeralds, and rubies before my astonished eyes: how should I decide to prefer the emerald to the pearl?
I am transported by admiration of the whole necklace." "Well, as for me, there is something I am more proud of than of all my sonnets, and which has done much more for my reputation than my verses." I opened my eyes wide, "What is that ?" I asked.

The master looked at me mischievously; then, with that beautiful light in his eyes which fires his youthful countenance, he said triumphantly-- "It is my discovery of the etymology of the word haricot!" I was so amazed that I forgot to laugh.
"I am perfectly serious in telling you this." "I know, my dear master, of your reputation for profound scholarship: but to imagine, on that account, that you were famed for your discovery of the etymology of haricot--I should never have expected it! Will you tell me how you made the discovery ?" "Willingly.

See now: I found some information respecting the haricot while studying that fine seventeenth-century work of natural history by Hernandez: _De Historia plantarum novi orbis_.

The word haricot was unknown in France until the seventeenth century: people used the word _feve_ or _phaseol_: in Mexican, _ayacot_.

Thirty species of haricot were cultivated in Mexico before the conquest.