Page 1620 - les-miserables

there’s my candle, confound it!’
The two children began to look upon the apartment with
less terror; but Gavroche allowed them no more time for
contemplation.
‘Quick,’ said he.
And he pushed them towards what we are very glad to be
able to call the end of the room.
There stood his bed.
Gavroche’s bed was complete; that is to say, it had a mat-
tress, a blanket, and an alcove with curtains.
The mattress was a straw mat, the blanket a rather large
strip of gray woollen stuff, very warm and almost new. This
is what the alcove consisted of:—
Three rather long poles, thrust into and consolidated,
with the rubbish which formed the floor, that is to say, the
belly of the elephant, two in front and one behind, and unit-
ed by a rope at their summits, so as to form a pyramidal
bundle. This cluster supported a trellis-work of brass wire
which was simply placed upon it, but artistically applied,
and held by fastenings of iron wire, so that it enveloped all
three holes. A row of very heavy stones kept this network
down to the floor so that nothing could pass under it. This
grating was nothing else than a piece of the brass screens
with which aviaries are covered in menageries. Gavroche’s
bed stood as in a cage, behind this net. The whole resembled
an Esquimaux tent.
This trellis-work took the place of curtains.
Gavroche moved aside the stones which fastened the net
down in front, and the two folds of the net which lapped

1620 Les Miserables