We burrowed in the hills, Gabriel and I.One day my mother, because my father struck her, went mad, left us and came to--" He broke off, pausing an instant.

"Then Gabriel struck the man, and he died, and we buried him, and my brother also left me, and I was alone.
By and by I travelled to Pontiac.

Once Gabriel came down from the hills, and Lajeunesse burnt him with a hot iron, for cutting his bellows in the night, to make himself a bed inside them.

To-day he came again to do some terrible thing to the blacksmith or the girl, and you have seen--ah, the poor Gabriel, and I killed him!" "I killed him," said Valmond--"I, Parpon, my friend." "My poor fool, my wild dog!" wailed the dwarf mournfully.
"Parpon," asked Valmond suddenly, "where is your mother ?" "It is no matter.

She has forgotten--she is safe." "If she should see him!" said Valmond tentatively, for a sudden thought had come to him that the mother of these misfits of God was Madame Degardy.
Parpon sprang to his-feet.