Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-06-01
THE BEGGAR.

He was found when baby in . ditch BY
the cure Of Les BiIlettes on Halloween.
and therefore was christenea Nicholas Tous-
saint; he had fed upon the bread Of charity
and had had no education.
When Is years old. he had both leu
crushed by . carriage on the highroad At
yaryille II was after the baker Of the
town had given him several glasses to
drink that be had famed his legs, and since
then he had been laughing stock Of the
town and knew OF nothing else to do but
20 stretch out his hand and beg
When he saw the uniform Of the gen
dsrmeS glittering in the sun, he would drop
from his crutches and let himself fall as
rag falls, rolling himself into ball and be
coming quite small and invisible. confound-
ing his brown tatters with the earth And
vet though he never had any trouble with
the cendarmes he carried this terror OF
them in his blood rs though he had inner
| tied it from the parents whom he had never
known.
For two days be had eaten nothing. The
peasant wife on the doorsteps cried afar on;
"Begone, gave you piece OF bread only
three days ago" :,
And yet every day the sluggard had need
| to eat
They called him THE Bell' because In
| truth he did swing between his two sticks
| Ike bell between its supports.
| Hunger threw a confused and heavy dis
| tress into his soul He had but single
| thought, Ito eat." but how he did not
| know.
When he had made the tour Of all the
| houses which he knew, he went and threw
| himself down in the corner OF dry ditch
beside the farmyard of Farmer Chiquet.
| Here he remained for long time tortured
| by hunger, but too much Of an animal real
| ty to penetrate the depth of his unfathoma-
| BILE misery.
| He knew not for what he waited, but
| there was present that vague sense of expec
tation which ever persists within us.
He waited in the icy wind for mys-
| FERROUS help which wealways hope i, from
! the sky or from men, without asking why
or through whom it is to come
| A flock of black chickens passed by seek
| ing their food i'll the all nourishing earth
| The Bell looked at them without thinking
of anything at all; then, rather in his stom
| ach than in his brain, there came a feeling
that one OF these creatures cooked over
fire of dead wood would make good eating,
| He took stone which came within reach
| of his hand, and being adroit threw it and
| killed the chicken which was nearest by
| And The Bell, clinging to his crutches, set
| off to pick up the game,
| Just as he arrived beside the little blacA
| body stained with blood about its head he
| received a terrible blow in the neck, which
| made him drop his sticks and sent him roll
ing 10 PAGES before them. Farmer Chiquet
| = n l. iaf nlt br,c him, ert1nIlp
pounding with hand and foot all over the
body of the defcnseless cripple, like a ma
! Mac or like peasant who had been robbed.
The Bell, half dead, torn with hunger. re
manned lying upon the ground.
Evening, night, then daybreak came
still he had eaten nothing Toward mid
day the gendarmes appeared, and Farmer
| Chiquet told them that he had been at
tackled by the beggar and had only defend
ed himself with the utmost difficulty.
The corporal cried, Come, get up" but
The Bell could not move.
They thought it was n feint or trick, and
two of them seized him roughly and placed
him on his crutehes. Fear had taken hold
| of him. and by superhuman efforts he man
aged to remain upright.
Forward" cried the corporal. All the
people at the farm were there to see him
off The women shook their fists; the mer
jeered and rallied at him. He was caught
at last-good radiance.
They shut him up in the town Jail, ant
the gendarmcs did not think of his needing
food, SO they left him till the next day.
| When they came to examine him early ir
the morning, he was dead upon the ground
What surprise,-From the French Of
Guy de Maupassant.