ke me for a walk with the
children. The schoolmaster was dressed like the gentlemen of the town.
Eugene wore a blue blouse, and I was very much surprised to see them so
friendly together. While we were waiting for lunch the schoolmaster
lent me a book of fairy tales, and when the time came for the walk I
would much rather have been left alone to finish the book.

On the village green the boys and girls were dancing in the sunshine
and the dust. I thought that they danced too roughly, and that they
were too noisy.

I felt very sad, and when the cart drove us back to the farm at
nightfall I felt really glad to be back in the silence and the sweet
smell of the meadows again.

A few days after that, on our way home from the forest, a sheep which
had been grazing near the hedge jumped right up into the air. I went
to see what was the matter, and saw that his nose was bleeding. I
thought that he must have pricked himself with a big thorn, and after
having washed him I didn't think anything more about it. Next day I
was terrified to see that his head had swollen up till it was almost as
big as his body. It frightened me so much that I screamed. Martine
came running up, and she began screaming too, and everybody came. I
explained what had happened the day before, and the farmer said that
the sheep must have been bitten by a viper. He would have to be cared
for, and must be left in the stable until the swelling had gone down.
I asked nothing better than to look after the poor brute, but when I
was alone with it I felt frightened to death. That enormous head,
which wobbled on the little body, made me half crazy with terror. The
great big eyes, the enormous mouth and the ears, which stood straight
up, made a monster almost impossible to imagine. The poor beast always
remained in the middle of the stable, as though he were afraid of
bumping himself against the wall. I tried to go to him, telling myself
that it was only a sheep after all, but I could not. But directly he
turned towards me I felt dreadfully sorry for him. Sometimes I used to
think that this dreadful face which wobbled from right to left was
reproaching me. Then something seemed to wobble inside my head, and I
felt as though I were going mad. I quite understood that I was
perfectly capable of letting him die of hunger. I told the cowherd
about it, and he said that he would look after the sheep as long as the
inflammation lasted. He laughed