ct, I did not think about it; the
noise around me was something frightful.

Suddenly a call rings out, a cold, sharp warning. I hear this cry--hear
it quite well, and I start nervously to one side, stepping as quickly
as my bad foot allows me to. A monster of a bread-van brushes past me,
and the wheel grazes my coat; I might perhaps have been a little
quicker if I had exerted myself. Well, there was no help for it; one
foot pained me, a couple of toes were crunched. I felt that they, as it
were, curled up in my shoes.

The driver reins in his horse with all his might. He turns round on the
van and inquires in a fright how it fares with me. Oh! it might have
been worse, far worse.... It was perhaps not so dangerous.... I didn't
think any bones were broken. Oh, pray....

I rushed over as quickly as I could to a seat; all these people who
stopped and stared at me abashed me. After all, it was no mortal blow;
comparatively speaking, I had got off luckily enough, as misfortune was
bound to come in my way. The worst thing was that my shoe was crushed
to pieces; the sole was torn loose at the toe. I help up my foot, and
saw blood inside the gap. Well, it wasn't intentional on either side;
it was not the man's purpose to make things worse for me than they
were; he looked much concerned about it. It was quite certain that if I
had begged him for a piece of bread out of his cart he would have given
it to me. He would certainly have given it to me gladly. God bless him
in return, wherever he is!...

I was terribly hungry, and I did not know what to do with myself and my
shameless appetite. I writhed from side to side on the seat, and bowed
my chest right down to my knees; I was almost distracted. When it got
dark I jogged along to the Town Hall--God knows how I got there--and
sat on the edge of the balustrade. I tore a pocket out of my coat and
took to chewing it; not with any defined object, but with dour mien and
unseeing eyes, staring straight into space. I could hear a group of
little children playing around near me, and perceive, in an instinctive
sort of way, some pedestrians pass me by; otherwise I observed nothing.

All at once, it enters my head to go to one of the meat bazaars
underneath me, and beg a piece of raw meat. I go straight along the
balustrade to the other side of the bazaar buildings, and descend the
steps. When I had nearly reached the stalls on the lower floor, I
called up the archway leading to the st