Cultural

Chapter IV. The Maternal House

“Well,” asked Mother Barberin, when we entered, “what did the mayor say?” “We didn’t see him.” “How! You didn’t see him?” “No, I met some friends at the Notre-Dame café and when we came out it was too late. So we’ll go back...

Chapter V. En Route

Because a man pays forty francs for a child that is not to say that he is a monster, and that he intends to eat the child. Vitalis had no desire to eat me and although he bought children he was not a bad man. I soon had proof of this. We had been walking […]

Chapter VI. My Début

We started early the next morning. The sky was blue and a light wind had come up in the night and dried all the mud. The birds were singing blithely in the trees and the dogs scampered around us. Now and again Capi stood up on his hind paws and barked into my face, two […]

Chapter 50. Chat between brother and sister

During the time which Lord de Winter took to shut the door, close a shutter, and draw a chair near to his sister-in-law’s fauteuil, Milady, anxiously thoughtful, plunged her glance into the depths of possibility, and discovered all the plan, of which she could not even obtain a glance as long as...

Chapter VII. Child and Animal Learning

Vitalis’ small group of actors were certainly very clever, but their talent was not very versatile. For this reason we were not able to remain long in the same town. Three days after our arrival in Ussel we were on our way again. Where were we going? I had grown bold enough to put this...

Chapter VIII. One Who Had Known a King

Our mode of traveling was very simple: We went straight ahead, anywhere, and when we found a village, which from the distance looked sufficiently important, we began preparations for a triumphal entry. I dressed the dogs, and combed Dulcie’s hair; stuck a plaster over Capi’s eye when he...

Chapter IX. Arrested

I had a pleasant remembrance of Pau, the beautiful winter resort where the wind scarcely ever blew. We stayed there the whole winter, for we were taking in quite a lot of money. Our audience consisted mostly of children, and they were never tired if we did give the same performance over and over...

Chapter X. Homeless

When I returned to the inn with heavy heart and red eyes, the landlord was standing in the yard. I was going to pass him to get to my dogs, but he stopped me. “Well, what about your master?” he asked. “He is sentenced.” “How long?” “Two months’...

Chapter XI. Another Boy’s Mother

Arthur’s mother was English. Her name was Mrs. Milligan. She was a widow, and Arthur was her only son; at least, it was supposed that he was her only son living, for she had lost an elder child under mysterious conditions. When the child was six months old it had been kidnaped, and they had...

Chapter XII. The Master’s Consent

It was all to end,- this beautiful trip that I had made on the barge. No nice bed, no nice pastry, no evenings listening to Mrs. Milligan. Ah! no Mrs. Milligan or Arthur! One day I decided to ask Mrs. Milligan how long it would take me to get back to Toulouse. I wanted to […]

Chapter XIII. Weary Dreary Days

Again I had to tramp behind my master with the harp strapped to my shoulder, through the rain, the sun, the dust, and the mud. I had to play the fool and laugh and cry in order to please the “distinguished audience.” More than once in our long walks I lagged behind to think of […]

Chapter XIV. The Death of Pretty-Heart

The sun came out brightly. Its rays fell on the white snow, and the forest, which the night before had looked so bleak and livid, was now dazzling with a radiancy that blinded the eyes. Several times Vitalis passed his hand under the coverlet to feel Pretty-Heart, but the poor little monkey did not...

Chapter XV. Faithful Friends

We were still a long way from Paris. We had to go by roads covered with snow, and walk from morning till night, the north wind blowing in our faces. How sad and weary were those long tramps. Vitalis walked ahead, I at his heels, and Capi behind me. Thus in line we went onward […]

Chapter XVI. The Padrone

Although I knew later how beautiful was the city of Paris, the slums, being my first glimpse, created anything but a favorable impression. Vitalis, who seemed to know his way, pushed through the groups of people who obstructed his passage along the narrow street we had just turned down....

Chapter XVII. Poor Vitalis

While we were in the street Vitalis said not a word, but soon we came to a narrow alley and he sat down on a mile-stone and passed his hand several times across his forehead. “It may be fine to listen to the voice of generosity,” he said, as though speaking to himself, “but now...

Chapter XVIII. New Friends

When I awoke I was in a bed, and the flames from a big fire lit up the room in which I was lying. I had never seen this room before, nor the people who stood near the bed. There was a man in a gray smock and clogs, and three or four children. One, […]

Chapter XIX. Disaster

Vitalis had to be buried the next day, and M. Acquin promised to take me to the funeral. But the next day I could not rise from my bed, for in the night I was taken very ill. My chest seemed to burn like poor little Pretty-Heart’s after he had spent the night in the […]

Chapter XX. Mattia

The world was before me; I could go where I liked, north, south, east or west. I was my own master. How many children there are who say to themselves, “If I could only do as I liked, … if I were my own master!” And how impatiently they look forward to this day when […]

Chapter XXI. Meeting Old Friends

It took us nearly three months to do this journey, but when at last we reached the outskirts of Varses we found that we had indeed employed our time well. In my leather purse I now had one hundred and twenty-eight francs. We were only short of twenty-two francs to buy Mother Barberin’s cow....

Chapter XXII. Imprisoned In a Mine

A few days later, while pushing my car along the rails, I heard a terrible roaring. The noise came from all sides. My first feeling was one of terror and I thought only of saving myself, but I had so often been laughed at for my fears that shame made me stay. I wondered if […]

Chapter XXIII. Once More upon the Way

I had made some friends in the mine. Such terrible experiences, born in common, unites one. Uncle Gaspard and the professor, in particular, had grown very fond of me and, although the engineer had not shared our captivity, he had become attached to me like one is to a child that one has snatched...

Chapter XXIV. Friendship that Is True

I loved Mattia when we arrived at Mendes, but when we left the town I loved him even more. I could not tell him before the barber how I felt when he cried out: “Leave my friend!” I took his hand and squeezed it as we tramped along. “It’s till death doth us part now,...

Chapter XXV. Mother, Brothers and Sisters

If I had not been in a hurry to get to Paris I should have stayed a long time with Lise. We had so much to say to each other and could say so little in the language that we used. She told me with signs how good her uncle and aunt had been to […]

Chapter XXVI. Bitter Disappointment

When we got to the street the clerk hailed a cab and told us to jump in. The strange looking vehicle, with the coachman sitting on a box at the back of a hood that covered us, I learned later was a hansom cab. Mattia and I were huddled in a corner with Capi between […]