Page:Des Grieux, The Prelude to Teleny.djvu/121

 of, that the owner of one of the booths possessed a dog—a peculiar animal with many long pointed breasts—which I could not help noticing, as it was ever pestered by all the curs of the neighbourhood. One day as I went to the window I saw that, and another dog, tied together—as I imagined—by their tails and they could not get free from one another.

The two pitiable animals were howling, for the children—cet âge est sans pitié—were throwing stones at them.

It was a rare sight, so I called everybody to hasten and enjoy it. As soon as my nurse perceived the two dogs, she snatched me up, cuffed me soundly, sent me off from the window, and told me if I ever looked upon such things again, my eyes would drop out of my head.

I therefore began pondering. Why I was a naughty boy? I had not tied the dogs together; and, if I looked at them, why were my eyeballs to fall clean out of their sockets?

Perhaps the dogs had not been tied,