Человек, который смеется / The Man Who Laughs. Уровень 4

I had but one potato, one crust of bread, a mouthful of bacon, and a drop of milk. 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 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. 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.

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! What the devil…”

He unrolled the jacket.

“Well, who is there?” said the man. “Here is another of them. Who is there? To arms![24 - To arms! – К оружию!] Corporal, call out the guard! 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 a sponge and a phial, muttering savagely,

“What an infernal place!”

Then he looked at the little infant.

“This is a girl! One can tell that by her scream.”

He swathed her in a rag, which was clean and dry. This rough and sudden dressing made the infant angry.

“She mews relentlessly,” said he.

He bit off a long piece of sponge, tore from the roll a square piece of linen, drew from it a bit of thread, took the saucepan containing the milk from the stove, filled the phial with milk, drove down the sponge halfway into its neck, covered the sponge with linen, tied this cork in with the thread, and seized under his left arm the bewildered bundle which was still crying.

“Come! take your supper, creature!” and he put the neck of the bottle to its mouth.

The little infant drank greedily.

He held the phial, grumbling,

“They are all the same, the cowards! When they have all they want they are silent.”

The little boy lifted towards Ursus his eyes moist with the unspeakable emotion. Ursus addressed him furiously.