Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

hurricane. I have not pocketed a farthing; and now, to-night, beggars
drop in. Horrid place! There is battle, struggle, competition between
the fools in the street and myself. They try to give me nothing but
farthings. I try to give them nothing but drugs. Well, to-day I've made
nothing. Not an idiot on the highway, not a penny in the till. Eat away,
hell-born boy! Tear and crunch! We have fallen on times when nothing can
equal the cynicism of spongers. Fatten at my expense, parasite! This
wretched boy is more than hungry; he is mad. It is not appetite, it is
ferocity. He is carried away by a rabid virus. Perhaps he has the
plague. Have you the plague, you thief? Suppose he were to give it to
Homo! No, never! Let the populace die, but not my wolf. But by-the-bye I
am hungry myself. I declare that this is all very disagreeable. I have
worked far into the night. There are seasons in a man's life when he is
hard pressed. I was to-night, by hunger. I was alone. I made a fire. I
had but one potato, one crust of bread, a mouthful of bacon, and a drop
of milk, and I put it to warm. I said to myself, 'Good.' I think I am
going to eat, and bang! this crocodile falls upon me at the very moment.
He installs himself clean between my food and myself. Behold, how my
larder is devastated! Eat, pike, eat! You shark! how many teeth have you
in your jaws? Guzzle, wolf-cub; no, I withdraw that word. I respect
wolves. Swallow up my food, boa. I have worked all day, and far into the
night, on an empty stomach; my throat is sore, my pancreas in distress,
my entrails torn; and my reward is to see another eat. 'Tis all one,
though! We will divide. He shall have the bread, the potato, and the
bacon; but I will have the milk."
Just then a wail, touching and prolonged, arose in the hut. The man
listened.
"You cry, sycophant! Why do you cry?"
The boy turned towards him. It was evident that it was not he who cried.
He had his mouth full.
The cry continued.
The man went to the chest.
"So it is your bundle that wails! Vale of Jehoshaphat! Behold a
vociferating parcel! What the devil has your bundle got to croak about?"
He unrolled the jacket. An infant's head appeared, the mouth open and
crying.
"Well, who goes there?" said the man. "Here is another of them. When is
this to end? Who is there? To arms! Corporal, call out the guard!
Another bang! What have you brought me, thief! Don't you see it is
thirsty? Come! the little one must have a drink. So now I shall not have
even the milk!"
He took down from the things lying in disorder on the shelf a bandage of
linen, a sponge and a phial, muttering savagely, "What an infernal
place!"
Then he looked at the little infant. "'Tis a girl! one can tell that by
her scream, and she is drenched as well." He dragged away, as he had
done from the boy, the tatters in which she was knotted up rather than