ound
himself beaten, torn, bruised, rolled on the ground in the middle of
the ring of applauding little vagabonds. As he arose, mechanically
brushing his little blouse all covered with dust with his hand, some
one shouted at him:

"Go and tell your papa."

He then felt a great sinking in his heart. They were stronger than he,
they had beaten him and he had no answer to give them, for he knew it
was true that he had no papa. Full of pride he tried for some moments
to struggle against the tears which were suffocating him. He had a
choking fit, and then without cries he began to weep with great sobs
which shook him incessantly. Then a ferocious joy broke out among his
enemies, and, just like savages in fearful festivals, they took one
another by the hand and danced in a circle about him as they repeated
in refrain:

"No papa! No papa!"

But suddenly Simon ceased sobbing. Frenzy overtook him. There were
stones under his feet; he picked them up and with all his strength
hurled them at his tormentors. Two or three were struck and ran away
yelling, and so formidable did he appear that the rest became
panic-stricken. Cowards, like a jeering crowd in the presence of an
exasperated man, they broke up and fled. Left alone, the little thing
without a father set off running toward the fields, for a recollection
had been awakened which nerved his soul to a great determination. He
made up his mind to drown himself in the river.

He remembered, in fact, that eight days ago a poor devil who begged for
his livelihood had thrown himself into the water because he had no more
money. Simon had been there when they fished him out again, and the
sight of the fellow, who had seemed to him so miserable and ugly, had
then impressed him--his pale cheeks, his long drenched beard, and his
open eyes being full of calm. The bystanders had said:

"He is dead."

And some one had added:

"He is quite happy now."

So Simon wished to drown himself also because he had no father, just as
the wretched being did who had no money.

He reached the water and watched it flowing. Some fishes were rising
briskly in the clear stream and occasionally made little leaps and
caught the flies on the surface. He stopped crying in order to watch
them, for their feeding interested him vastly. But, at intervals, as in
the lulls of a tempest, when tremendous gusts of wind snap off trees
and then die away, this thought would return to him with intense pain:

"I