Page 1856 - les-miserables

some, and breath in others, wrath in others, movement in
all, now pricking a student, now biting an artisan; he alight-
ed, paused, flew off again, hovered over the tumult, and the
effort, sprang from one party to another, murmuring and
humming, and harassed the whole company; a fly on the
immense revolutionary coach.
Perpetual motion was in his little arms and perpetual
clamor in his little lungs.
‘Courage! more paving-stones! more casks! more ma-
chines! Where are you now? A hod of plaster for me to stop
this hole with! Your barricade is very small. It must be car-
ried up. Put everything on it, fling everything there, stick it
all in. Break down the house. A barricade is Mother Gibou’s
tea. Hullo, here’s a glass door.’
This elicited an exclamation from the workers.
‘A glass door? what do you expect us to do with a glass
door, tubercle?’
‘Hercules yourselves!’ retorted Gavroche. ‘A glass door
is an excellent thing in a barricade. It does not prevent an
attack, but it prevents the enemy taking it. So you’ve never
prigged apples over a wall where there were broken bottles?
A glass door cuts the corns of the National Guard when they
try to mount on the barricade. Pardi! glass is a treacherous
thing. Well, you haven’t a very wildly lively imagination,
comrades.’
However, he was furious over his triggerless pistol. He
went from one to another, demanding: ‘A gun, I want a gun!
Why don’t you give me a gun?’
‘Give you a gun!’ said Combeferre.

1856 Les Miserables