Merlusse

Merlusse is French schoolboy slang for codfish and M Blanchard a professor at a certain lycée was known to his victims by that name On Christmas eve when some twenty of the studentsorphans foreigners or just plain unwantedshad to remain in the boarding school Merlusse is placed in charge His glass eye glares at them stonily his good one with no less severity He sets them to tasks marches like a proctor up and down the aisles exacts to the utmost the last measure of discipline But when the youngsters awake in the morning there are toys by each bed in the dormitory and M Blanchard no longer to be called Merlusse is exposed for the softhearted fraud he is