Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ed without: we have chains on our feet and laurels in our pockets. I rushed into study as one throws himself into the water, from despair, and did so well that, after a few months labor, I was at the head of the class. Then the cruelties to which I had been compelled to submit gradually ceased, and they contented themselves with making fun of me. What a sensation of comfort I felt! One Sunday evening—I had as usual spent the holiday entirely alone—my next neighbor in the class, who was singing merrily, ran against me on the staircase leading to the dormitory. This young fellow's name was Timol6on, and he was numbered among the most influential personages in the division. Tall sturdy, skilful in every game, with thick fair hair surrounding a face as laughing and rosy as a girl's, his eyes beamed with an expression of such bewitching frankness and jollity that he was beloved by everybody, and although one of the wildest received the fewest punishments, yet no one dreamed of wondering at it. Moreover, this spoiled child was extremely idle ; but he might have made even laziness attractive by the joyous grace with which he bore his ignorance. " I have brought you something that will please you, little old man,1' said he, placing in my hands a package containing two brioches. I was so unaccustomed to such proceedings that at first my embarrassment was extreme, and—I confess it with regret—I felt an emotion of distrust. Dogs which have been too much beaten run away when they are called. " Why do you give me this ?" I murmured. " To please you, of course. You, never go out, my poor little ola man, nobody comes to see you, and you haven't a cent." " I do not complain." " I have been a long time in discovering what you really are—don't put your old spectacles on the ... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.