Page 1855 - les-miserables

pell-mell on the tables with glasses of wine. In the billiard-
hall, Mame Hucheloup, Matelote, and Gibelotte, variously
modified by terror, which had stupefied one, rendered an-
other breathless, and roused the third, were tearing up old
dish-cloths and making lint; three insurgents were assist-
ing them, three bushy-haired, jolly blades with beards and
moustaches, who plucked away at the linen with the fingers
of seamstresses and who made them tremble.
The man of lofty stature whom Courfeyrac, Combe-
ferre, and Enjolras had observed at the moment when he
joined the mob at the corner of the Rue des Billettes, was
at work on the smaller barricade and was making himself
useful there. Gavroche was working on the larger one. As
for the young man who had been waiting for Courfeyrac at
his lodgings, and who had inquired for M. Marius, he had
disappeared at about the time when the omnibus had been
overturned.
Gavroche, completely carried away and radiant, had un-
dertaken to get everything in readiness. He went, came,
mounted, descended, re-mounted, whistled, and sparkled.
He seemed to be there for the encouragement of all. Had
he any incentive? Yes, certainly, his poverty; had he wings?
yes, certainly, his joy. Gavroche was a whirlwind. He was
constantly visible, he was incessantly audible. He filled the
air, as he was everywhere at once. He was a sort of almost
irritating ubiquity; no halt was possible with him. The enor-
mous barricade felt him on its haunches. He troubled the
loungers, he excited the idle, he reanimated the weary, he
grew impatient over the thoughtful, he inspired gayety in

1855