"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 students—orphans, foreigners or just plain "unwanteds"—had 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.
Henri Poupon
André Pollack
Annie Toinon
Thommeray
Jean Castan
Le Petit Jacques
d'Armans
Fernand Bruno
Robert Aviérinos
Robert Chaux
Dernard
John Dubrou
Jean Inglesakis
Le-Van-Kim
Rellys
André Robert
Armando Rossi