by Victor Hugo
CHAPTER III.
MEN WANT WINE AND HORSES WATER.
Four new travellers arrived. Cosette was sorrowfully reflecting; forthough only eight years of age she had already suffered so much thatshe thought with the mournful air of an old woman. Her eye-lid wasblackened by a blow which the woman had given her, which made Madamesay now and then, "How ugly she is with her black eye!" Cosette wasthinking then that it was late, very late; that she had been suddenlyobliged to fill the jugs and bottles in the rooms of the travellerswho had just arrived, and that there was no water in the cistern. Whatreassured her most was the fact that but little water was drunk at the"Sergeant of Waterloo." There was no lack of thirsty souls, but it wasthat sort of thirst which applies more readily to the wine-jar thanto the water-bottle. Any one who asked for a glass of water among theglasses of wine would have appeared a savage to all these men. At onemoment, however, the child trembled; her mistress raised the cover ofa stew-pan bubbling on a stove, then took a glass and hurried to thecistern. The child had turned, and was watching all the movements. Athin stream of water ran from the tap and filled the glass. "Hilloh!"she add, "there is no water," Then she was silent for a moment, duringwhich the child did not breathe.
"Well," Madame Thénardier continued, as she examined the half-filledglass, "this will be enough."
Cosette returned to her work, but for more than a quarter of an hourshe felt her heart beating in her chest. She counted the minutes thatpassed thus, and wished that it were next morning. From time to timeone of the topers looked out into the street and said, "It's as blackas pitch," or "A man would have to be a cat to go into the street atthis hour without a lantern," and Cosette shivered. All at once one ofthe pedlers lodging at the inn came in and said in a harsh voice,--
"My horse has had no water."
"Oh yes, it has," said Madame Thénardier.
"I tell you it has not, mother," the pedler went on.
Cosette had crept out from under the table.
"Oh yes, sir," she said, "your horse drank a bucketful, and I gave itthe water and talked to it."
This was not true.
"There's a girl no bigger than one's fist who tells a lie as big as ahouse," the pedler exclaimed. "I tell you it has not had any water, youlittle devil; it has a way of breathing which I know well when it hasnot drunk."
Cosette persisted, and added in a voice rendered hoarse by agony, andwhich was scarce audible,--
"Oh, indeed, the horse drank a lot."
"Enough of this," the pedler said savagely; "give my horse water."
Cosette went back under the table.
"Well, that is but fair," said Madame; "if the brute has not drunk itought to drink." Then she looked around her. "Why, where is the littledevil?"
She stooped down, and discovered Cosette hidden at the other end of thetable, almost under the feet of the topers.
"Come out of that!" her mistress shouted.
Cosette came out of the hole in which she had hidden herself, and thelandlady continued,--
"Miss What's-your-name, give the horse water."
"There is no water, Madame," Cosette said faintly.
Her mistress threw the street door wide open.
"Well, go and fetch some."
Cosette hung her head, and fetched an empty bucket standing in a cornernear the chimney; it was larger than herself, and she could have satdown in it comfortably. Madame Thénardier returned to her stove andtasted the contents of a stew-pan with a wooden spoon, while growling,--
"There's plenty at the spring. I believe it would have been better tosift the onions."
Then she rummaged in a drawer which contained halfpence, pepper, andshalots.
"Here, Miss Toad," she added, "as you come back, you will fetch a loaffrom the baker's. Here's a fifteen-sous piece."
Cosette had a small pocket in her apron, in which she placed the coin;then she stood motionless, bucket in hand, and with the door openbefore her. She seemed to be waiting for some one to come to her help.
"Be off!" her mistress shouted.
Cosette went out and shut the door after her.
