Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v1.djvu/215

Rh "They are all the same, the cowards! While they get all they want they are quiet!"

The child drank so ravenously, and seized so eagerly this breast offered by a cross-grained Providence, that she was taken with a violent fit of coughing.

"You are going to choke!" growled Ursus. "A fine gobbler this one is too!"

He drew away the sponge which she was sucking, allowed the cough to subside, and then replaced the phial to her lips, saying, "Suck! you little wretch!"

In the mean time the boy had laid down his fork. Seeing the infant drink made him forget to eat. The moment before, while he ate, the expression on his face was satisfaction; now it was gratitude. He watched the infant's renewal of life; and the completion of the restoration begun by himself filled his eyes with an ineffable brilliancy. Ursus went on muttering angry words between his teeth. The boy now and then lifted to him eyes moist with the deep emotion which the poor little being felt, but was unable to express.

"Eat, eat, I tell you!" Ursus said to the boy, savagely.

"And you?" said the boy, trembling all over, and with tears in his eyes,—" you will have nothing!"

"Will you be kind enough to eat it all up, you cub? As there was not enough for me, there cannot be too much for you."

The boy took up his fork, but did not eat.

"Eat!" shouted Ursus. "What have you to do with me? Who speaks of me? Wretched little barefooted clerk of Poverty Parish! eat it all up, I tell you! You are here to eat, drink, and sleep; eat, or I will kick you out, both of you."

The boy, at this threat, began to eat again. He had not much trouble in finishing what was left in the porringer.