Page 977 - les-miserables

CHAPTER I

PARVULUS

Paris has a child, and the forest has a bird; the bird is called
the sparrow; the child is called the gamin.
Couple these two ideas which contain, the one all the
furnace, the other all the dawn; strike these two sparks to-
gether, Paris, childhood; there leaps out from them a little
being. Homuncio, Plautus would say.
This little being is joyous. He has not food every day, and
he goes to the play every evening, if he sees good. He has
no shirt on his body, no shoes on his feet, no roof over his
head; he is like the flies of heaven, who have none of these
things. He is from seven to thirteen years of age, he lives in
bands, roams the streets, lodges in the open air, wears an
old pair of trousers of his father’s, which descend below his
heels, an old hat of some other father, which descends be-
low his ears, a single suspender of yellow listing; he runs,
lies in wait, rummages about, wastes time, blackens pipes,
swears like a convict, haunts the wine-shop, knows thieves,
calls gay women thou, talks slang, sings obscene songs, and
has no evil in his heart. This is because he has in his heart a
pearl, innocence; and pearls are not to be dissolved in mud.

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