Two Friends - Classic Short Stories Author:Guy de Maupassant an excerpt from the beginning: Besieged ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Paris was in the throes of famine. Even the sparrows on the roofs and the rats in the sewers were growing scarce. People were eating anything they could get. ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:off... more »ice:office" / As Monsieur Morissot, watchmaker by profession and idler for the nonce, was strolling along the boulevard one bright January morning, his hands in his trousers pockets and stomach empty, he suddenly came face to face with an acquaintance-Monsieur Sauvage, a fishing chum. Before the war broke out Morissot had been in the habit, every Sunday morning, of setting forth with a bamboo rod in his hand and a tin box on his back. He took the Argenteuil train, got out at Colombes, and walked thence to the Ile Marante. The moment he arrived at this place of his dreams he began fishing, and fished till nightfall. Every Sunday he met in this very spot Monsieur Sauvage, a stout, jolly, little man, a draper in the Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, and also an ardent fisherman. They often spent half the day side by side, rod in hand and feet dangling over the water, and a warm friendship had sprung up between the two. Some days they did not speak; at other times they chatted; but they understood each other perfectly without the aid of words, having similar tastes and feelings. In the spring, about ten o'clock in the morning, when the early sun caused a light mist to float on the water and gently warmed the backs of the two enthusiastic anglers, Morissot would occasionally remark to his neighbor: "My, but it's pleasant here." To which the other would reply: "I can't imagine anything better!" And these few words sufficed to make them understand and appreciate each other.« less