with all his strength hurled
them at his tormentors. Two or three were struck and rushed off yelling,
and so formidable did he appear that the rest became panic stricken.
Cowards, as a crowd always is in the presence of an exasperated man,
they broke up and fled. Left alone, the little thing without a father set
off running towards the fields, for a recollection had been awakened
which brought his soul to a great determination. He made up his mind to
drown himself in the river.

He remembered, in fact, that eight days before 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 had fished him out again; and
the sight of the fellow, who usually seemed to him so miserable, and
ugly, had then struck him--his pale cheeks, his long drenched beard and
his open eyes being full of calm. The bystanders had said:

"He is dead."

And someone had said:

"He is quite happy now."

And Simon wished to drown himself also because he had no father, just
like the wretched being who had no money.

He reached the neighborhood of the water and watched it flowing. Some
fishes were sporting briskly in the clear stream and occasionally made
a little bound and caught the flies flying on the surface. He stopped
crying in order to watch them, for their housewifery interested him
vastly. But, at intervals, as in the changes of a tempest, altering
suddenly from tremendous gusts of wind, which snap off the trees and
then lose themselves in the horizon, this thought would return to him
with intense pain:

"I am about to drown myself because I have no Papa."

It was very warm and fine weather. The pleasant sunshine warmed the
grass. The water shone like a mirror. And Simon enjoyed some minutes the
happiness of that languor which follows weeping, in which he felt very
desirous of falling asleep there upon the grass in the warmth.

A little green frog leapt from under his feet. He endeavored to catch it.
It escaped him. He followed it and lost it three times following. At last
he caught it by one of its hind legs and began to laugh as he saw the
efforts the creature made to escape. It gathered itself up on its large
legs and then with a violent spring suddenly stretched them out as stiff
as two bars; while, its eye wide open in its round, golden circle, it
beat the air with its front limbs which worked as though they were hands.
It reminded him of a toy made w