1. mistral: a dry cutting NW. wind which blows across the south coast of France. It is especially prevalent in the Rhone valley.
6. n'étaient pas en odeur de sainteté, 'were not looked upon with much favour.'
19. à voix basse, 'in a whisper'; but _à haute voix_, 'in a loud voice.'
23. mon grand frère l'abbé, 'my big brother the clergyman,' i.e. Henri Daudet, professor at the College of the Assumption at Nîmes. He died at the early age of twenty-four. The term _abbé_ originally meant the Superior of an abbey, then was extended to any ecclesiastic.
31. un singulier enfant que mon frère Jacques: i.e. _mon frère Jacques était un singulier enfant._ Note the _que_ of emphatic inversion. It is a very common type of construction. Cf. p. 73 l. 3, _la jolie ville que ce Paris!_ p. 100 l. 22, _un singulier type d'homme que cet oncle Baptiste!_
2. les yeux rouges et la joue ruisselante: note the absence of a preposition corresponding to the English 'with.' It is a very characteristic French idiom.
12. que veux-tu, mon ami? 'how can we help it, my dear?' lit. 'what would you have (him do)?'
16. qu'avait cet étrange garçon: inversion frequently occurs in relative clauses, especially when the subject is longer than the verb.
18. désolation, 'distress'; désolé, 'grieved,' 'disconsolate,' _not_ 'desolate.'
19. c'est pour le coup . . à son aise, 'this was a grand opportunity for him to sob to his heart's content.'
31. une douzaine d'années: the suffix _-aine_ added to numerals generally implies an approximate number; _une quinzaine_, 'about fifteen.'
5. mon fidèle Vendredi: Robinson Crusoe's servant and companion.
21. tenait son emploi, 'played his part.'
24. toujours est-il que, 'anyhow.' Cf. note, p. 1 l. 13.
28. j'en avais quelquefois le c[oe]ur bouleversé, 'my courage was sometimes shaken.'
1. gros mots d'enfants de la rue, 'coarse expressions of the street arabs.'
3. en pleine table, 'before the whole table.' Cf.-- p. 25 l. 11, _en pleine montagne_, 'right on the hill side, 'in the heart of the mountains.' p. 64 l. 20, _en pleine révolte_, 'in open mutiny.' p. 65 l. 30, _en pleine étude_, 'before the whole class.' So also-- _en plein air_, 'in the open air.' _en pleine rue_, 'in the middle of the street.' _en plein hiver_, 'in the depths of winter.'