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nd all that, don't we?" cried Tortillard, bursting into peals of laughter. "I beg your pardon, dear father, but I can't possibly help thinking it so funny to hear you, whose fingers were regular fish-hooks, picking and stealing whatever came in their way; and, as for generosity, I beg you don't mention it, because, till you got your eyes poked out I don't suppose you ever thought of such a word!" "But, at least, I never did you any harm. Why, then, torment me thus?" "Because, in the first place, you said what I did not like to the Chouette; then you had a fancy for stopping and playing the fool among the clodhoppers here. Perhaps you mean to commence a course of asses' milk?" "You impudent young beggar! If I had only had the opportunity of remaining at this farm--which I now wish sunk in the bottomless pit, or blasted with eternal lightning--you should not have played your tricks of devilish cruelty with me any longer!" "You to remain here! that would be a farce! Who, then, would Madame la Chouette have for her _bete de souffrance_? Me, perhaps, thank ye!--don't you wish you may get it?" "Miserable abortion!" "Abortion! ah, yes, another reason why I say, as well as Aunt Chouette, there is nothing so funny as to see you in one of your unaccountable passions--you, who could kill me with one blow of your fist; it's more funny than if you were a poor, weak creature. How very funny you were at supper to-night! _Dieu de Dieu!_ what a lark I had all to myself! Why, it was better than a play at the Gaite. At every kick I gave you on the sly, your passion made all the blood fly in your face, and your white eyes became red all round; they only wanted a bit of blue in the middle to have been real tri-coloured. They would have made two fine cockades for the town-sergeant, wouldn't they?" "Come, come, you like to laugh--you are merry: bah! it's natural at your age--it's natural--I'm not angry with you," said the Schoolmaster, in an air of affected carelessness, hoping to propitiate Tortillard; "but, instead of standing there, saying saucy things, it would be much better for you to remember what the Chouette told you; you say you are very fond of her. You should examine all over the place, and get the print of the locks. Didn't you hear them say they expected to have a large sum of money here on Monday? We will be amongst them then, and have our share. I should have been foolish to have stayed here; I should have had e
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