should have in bearing with it my whole life."

"Oh, sister! do not say that."

"In simple truth," returned Mother Bunch, "to what temptations is a
creature like me exposed? Do I not naturally seek solitude, even as you
seek a noisy life of pleasure? What wants have I? A very little
suffices."

"But you have not always that little?"

"No--but, weak and sickly as I seem, I can endure some privations better
than you could. Thus hunger produces in me a sort of numbness, which
leaves me very feeble--but for you, robust and full of life, hunger is
fury, is madness. Alas! you must remember how many times I have seen you
suffering from those painful attacks, when work failed us in our wretched
garret, and we could not even earn our four francs a week--so that we had
nothing--absolutely nothing to eat--for our pride prevented us from
applying to the neighbors."

"You have preserved the right to that honest pride."

"And you as well! Did you not struggle as much as a human creature could?
But strength fails at last--I know you well, Cephyse--it was hunger that
conquered you; and the painful necessity of constant labor, which was yet
insufficient to supply our common wants."

"But you could endure those privations--you endure them still."

"Can you compare me with yourself? Look," said Mother Bunch, taking her