, and the tasks imposed of even less benefit;
I always went to work reluctantly and in the wrong spirit, and that
lessened and extinguished my power and stupefied me. I had the same
unfortunate experience when I came in contact with school-mates of my
own age, my equals; their roughness disgusted me, and I repulsed all
the efforts they made to be friendly. . . . I never saw them except in
class, under the master's rod as it were; I had already become a little
being too peculiar and set in my ways to be modified greatly by contact
with them, and I therefore held aloof, and my eccentricities accentuated
themselves.

Almost all of them were older and more developed than I; they also
were more crafty and more sophisticated; in consequence there sprung up
amongst them a feeling of contempt and enmity for me that I repaid with
disdain, for I felt sure that they were incapable of comprehending or
following the flights of my imagination.

With the very youthful peasants in the mountains, and the fishermen's
children on the Island, I had never been haughty; we had understood each
other after the fashion of children who are primitive and therefore fond
of childish play; and upon such occasions I had associated with them as
if they were my equals. But I was arrogant in my behavior to the boys at
school, and they had good reason to consider me whimsical and priggish.
It took me many years to conquer that arrogance, to act simply and like
other people in the world; and especially it was difficult for me to
realize that one is not necessarily superior to his fellows because he
is (to his own misfortune often) prince and conjurer in the realm of
fancy.

CHAPTER LI.

The theatre wherein was enacted the "Donkey's Skin," very much amplified
and more elaborate, had now a permanent place in my aunt Claire's room.
Little Jeanne, more interested in it since the additions to the scenery
and the text, came over oftener; she painted backgrounds under my
direction, and the moments I enjoyed most were those in which I
impressed her with my great superiority. We had now a box full of
characters, each with a name and a role; and the fantastic processions
were made up of regiments of monsters, beasts and gnomes made out of
plaster and painted with water colors.

I recall our delight and enthusiasm when we tried for the first time the
effect of a scenic background which we had made to represent the "void
of heaven." Delicate rosy clou