Then he felt a great sinking at his heart.  They were stronger than he was, they had beaten him, and he had no answer to give them, for he knew well that it was true that he had no papa.  Full of pride, he attempted for some moments to struggle against the tears which were choking him.  He had a feeling of suffocation, and then without any sound he commenced to weep, with great shaking sobs.  A ferocious joy broke out among his enemies, and, with one accord, just like savages in their fearful festivals, they took each other by the hand and danced round him in a circle, repeating as a refrain: 

“No papa!  No papa!”

But suddenly Simon ceased sobbing.  He became ferocious.  There were stones under his feet; he picked them up and with all his strength hurled them at his tormentors.  Two or three were struck and rushed off yelling, and so formidable did he appear that the rest became panic-stricken.  Cowards, as the mob always is in presence of an exasperated man, they broke up and fled.  Left alone, the little fellow without a father set off running toward the fields, for a recollection had been awakened in him which determined his soul to a great resolve.  He made up his mind to drown himself in the river.

He remembered, in fact, that eight days before, a poor devil who begged for his livelihood had thrown himself into the water because he had no more money.  Simon had been there when they fished him out again; and the wretched man, who usually seemed to him so miserable, and ugly, had then struck him as being so peaceful with his pale cheeks, his long drenched beard, and his open eyes full of calm.  The bystanders had said: 

“He is dead.”

And some one had said: 

“He is quite happy now.”

And Simon wished to drown himself also, because he had no father, just like the wretched being who had no money.

He reached the water and watched it flowing.  Some fish were sporting briskly in the clear stream and occasionally made a little bound and caught the flies flying on the surface.  He stopped crying in order to watch them, for their maneuvers interested him greatly.  But, at intervals, as in a tempest intervals of calm alternate suddenly with tremendous gusts of wind, which snap off the trees and then lose themselves in the horizon, this thought would return to him with intense pain: 

“I am going to drown myself because I have no papa.”

It was very warm, fine weather.  The pleasant sunshine warmed the grass.  The water shone like a mirror.  And Simon enjoyed some minutes of happiness, of that languor which follows weeping, and felt inclined to fall asleep there upon the grass in the warm sunshine.