The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables

nd were told how matters stood. It seemed a liberty for a mountebank to fall ill like real people, and they made o

ner of the little dining-room, and his wife was asleep

me before. It was a case for hurry.' And he followed

y was the scene picturesque, but the moment made a date in his existence. We reckon our lives, I hardly know why, from the date of our first sorry appearance in society, as if from a first humiliation; for no actor can come upon the stage with a worse grace. Not to go further back, which would be judged too curious, there are subsequently ma

et dangling. These three were the only occupants, except the shadows. But the shadows were a company in themselves; the extent of the room exaggerated them to a gigantic size, and from the low position of the candle the light struck upwards and produced deformed foreshortenings. The mountebank's profile was enlarged upon the wall in caricature, a

r where. It was as if this boy, who was quite a stranger to him, had the eyes of an old friend or an old enemy. And the boy would give him no peace; he seemed profoundly indifferent to what was going on, or rather abstracted from it in a superior contemplation, beating gently with his feet against the bars of the chair, and holding his hands folded on his lap. But, for all that, his eyes kept

the eyes that go usually with a crooked back; he was not at all deformed, and yet a deformed person seemed to be looking at you from below

th one knee on the floor, turned a little round and looked the boy over at his lei

r father?' a

urned the boy

of him?' conti

,' said

nd Desprez exchange

herries, I have a thought of disappointment when he flies away over my garden wall, and I see him steer for the forest and vanish. How much more a creature such as this, so strong, so astute, so richly endowed with facultie

r a little, and appea

,' he replied at last

matter, they are all the same, these mountebanks, tum

inising the little pagan, his

our name?'

ie,' said

en flashes of excitement, and felt his head

Celtic!

ad perhaps confounded the word with hydr

then once more addressing the boy: 'And what do

,' was th

the guess, Madame Tentaillon, that tumbling is a healthful w

I used to steal,' answ

my unfavourable opinion. I leave the case in his hands; but of course, on any alarming symptom, above all if there should be a sign of rally,