Page 222 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IV

THOLOMYES IS SO

MERRY THAT HE SINGS

A SPANISH DITTY

That day was composed of dawn, from one end to the other.
All nature seemed to be having a holiday, and to be laugh-
ing. The flower-beds of Saint-Cloud perfumed the air; the
breath of the Seine rustled the leaves vaguely; the branches
gesticulated in the wind, bees pillaged the jasmines; a whole
bohemia of butterflies swooped down upon the yarrow, the
clover, and the sterile oats; in the august park of the King of
France there was a pack of vagabonds, the birds.
The four merry couples, mingled with the sun, the fields,
the flowers, the trees, were resplendent.
And in this community of Paradise, talking, singing,
running, dancing, chasing butterflies, plucking convol-
vulus, wetting their pink, open-work stockings in the tall
grass, fresh, wild, without malice, all received, to some ex-
tent, the kisses of all, with the exception of Fantine, who was
hedged about with that vague resistance of hers composed

222 Les Miserables