The Count of Monte Cristo

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In the surrounding plain, which more resembled a dusty lake than solid
ground, were scattered a few miserable stalks of wheat, the effect,
no doubt, of a curious desire on the part of the agriculturists of the
country to see whether such a thing as the raising of grain in those
parched regions was practicable. Each stalk served as a perch for a
grasshopper, which regaled the passers by through this Egyptian scene
with its strident, monotonous note.

For about seven or eight years the little tavern had been kept by a man
and his wife, with two servants,--a chambermaid named Trinette, and
a hostler called Pecaud. This small staff was quite equal to all
the requirements, for a canal between Beaucaire and Aiguemortes had
revolutionized transportation by substituting boats for the cart and
the stagecoach. And, as though to add to the daily misery which this
prosperous canal inflicted on the unfortunate inn-keeper, whose utter
ruin it was fast accomplishing, it was situated between the Rhone from
which it had its source and the post-road it had depleted, not a