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 4 has something to do with a certain affinity in a previous life.” The proverb has much truth in it, for this gap has become the passage by which, to this day, I pay visits to Miss Mikè who lives next door.

Well, I said I crept into the yard. But I was quite at a loss what to do next. By this time it was growing dark; hunger was staring me in the face. Cold came, and rain began to fall, into the bargain. This drove me towards a lighter and warmer place. I think now that I had then already made my way into a dwelling house. Here I had a chance to see other human beings.

The first one was a maid, whom I found to be a more violent creature than the student mentioned before. For, no sooner did she catch sight of me, than she seized me by the neck, and flung me into the yard. Before this formidable foe struggling was useless. So I shut my eye, and gave myself up to Providence. To this brutal treatment were added the pangs of starvation. So I watched another chance, and stole into the kitchen only to be hurled out again. I remember that the same thing was repeated four or five times at least, which deeply impressed me with the feeling that a maid is a very disgusting brute. The other day, by way of tit for tat, I secretly devoured a mackerel pike that was