"Poor babby, I think I see him," said the prisoner in the blue cap; "there are so many like him on the streets of Paris, little starved-to-deaths." "They ought to begin to learn that trade young," replied Pique-Vinaigre, bitterly; "so that they can become used to it." "Come, go on then, make haste," said Skeleton, gruffly; "the keeper is impatient, his soup is growing cold." "Oh, bah! never mind," answered the keeper; "I wish to make a little more acquaintance with Gringalet. It is amusing." "Really, it is very interesting," added Germain, attentive to the story. "Oh, thank you for what you say, my capitalist; that gives me more pleasure than your ten sous." "Thunder! you sluggard!" cried the Skeleton. "Will you have done keeping us waiting?" "Here goes!" answered Pique-Vinaigre. "One day Cut-in-half had picked up Gringalet in the street, dying with cold and hunger; he would have done just as well to let him alone to die. As Gringalet was feeble, he was afraid; and as he was cowardly, he became the laughing-stock and scapegoat of his companions, who beat him, and caused him so much misery, that he would have been very wicked if strength and courage had not failed him. But no; when they beat him, he cried, saying, 'I have done no harm to any one, yet every one harms me--it is unjust. Oh! if I were strong and bold!' You think, perhaps, that Gringalet was going to add, 'I would return to others the evil they did me.' Well, no! not at all: he said, 'Oh! if I were strong and bold, I would defend the weak against the strong; for I am weak, and the strong make me suffer.' In the mean time, as he was too much of a pigmy to prevent the strong from molesting the weak, he prevented the larger beasts from injuring the smaller ones. "There's a funny idea!" said the prisoner in the blue cap. "And what is still more funny," replied the patterer, "is that, with this idea, one would have said that Gringalet consoled himself for being beaten; and that proves that, at bottom, he had not a bad heart." "I think so--on the contrary," said the keeper, "Pique-Vinaigre is jolly amusing."