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Updated: June 22, 2025
Garofoli gave me two little white mice to show to the public and I had to bring him back thirty sous every night. As many sous as you are short a day, so many blows you get. It is hard to pick up thirty sous, but the blows are hard, too, especially when it's Garofoli who gives them. So I did everything that I could to get the money, but I was often short.
I did not see Mattia. He had probably been taken off to the hospital. Upon seeing the officer and recognizing me, Garofoli paled and looked frightened, but he soon recovered himself when he learned that they had only come to question him about Vitalis. "So the old fellow is dead?" he said. "You know him? Well, tell us all you can about him." "There is not much to tell. His name was not Vitalis.
I was not there when Garofoli was arrested. When I came out of the hospital, Garofoli, seeing that it was no good to beat me 'cause I got ill, wanted to get rid of me, so he sold me for two years to the Gassot Circus. They paid him in advance. D'ye know the Gassot Circus? No? Well, it's not much of a circus, but it's a circus all the same.
Running to Ricardo, he snatched the whip from him, then, wheeling round upon Garofoli, he stood before him with folded arms. It all happened so quickly that, for a moment, I was dumbfounded, but Garofoli quickly recovered himself and said gently: "Isn't it terrible? That child has no heart." "Shame! It's a shame!" cried Vitalis. "That is just what I say," murmured Garofoli.
Nearly all the other boys had their money when they returned at night, but I scarcely ever had mine and Garofoli was mad! There is another boy here, who also shows mice, and he's taxed forty sous, and he brings that sum back every night. Several times I went out with him to see how he made it...." He paused. "Well?" I asked.
"Oh, the ladies always said, 'Give it to the pretty little one, not the ugly boy. The ugly one, of course, was I; so I did not go out with him any more. A blow hurts, but it hurts more to have things like that said, and before a lot of people! You don't know that because no one has ever told you that you are ugly. Well, when Garofoli saw that beating me didn't do any good, he tried another way.
"That's true," he said, smiling; "my head is only soft when it's banged. Garofoli found out that!" How could one keep angry at this reply. I laughed and we went on with the lessons. But with music, from the beginning, he made astonishing progress. In the end, he so confused me with his questions, that I was obliged to confess that I could not teach him any more.
This cruel joke made all the children who were not to be punished laugh. All the other boys were then questioned as to how much they had brought home. Ricardo stood with whip in hand until five victims were placed in a row before him. "You know, Ricardo," said Garofoli, "I don't like to look on, because a scene like this always makes me feel ill.
"If you had met Garofoli in Paris and he had forced you to go back to him, I am sure you would not have wanted me to stay with you. I am simply doing what you would do yourself." He did not reply. "You must go back to France," I insisted; "go to Lise and tell her that I cannot do for her father what I promised. I told her that the first thing I did would be to pay off his debts.
Then he dropped his shirt, baring his body to the waist. "Wait a minute," said Garofoli, with an ugly smile; "you won't be the only one, perhaps; it's always pleasant to have a companion." The children stood motionless before their master. At his cruel joke they all forced a laugh. "The one who laughed most is the one who is short the most," said Garofoli; "I'm sure of that.
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