MS-HRC-SB-5-10

[0762] your return, patiently, and you too must be patient.[0763] It was
swarming with them, grandpa, grandma, little mother and the eight
or nine brats.[0764] With their eyes glued to the slits ^and they ^surveyed
my efforts ^struggles, their hearts going out to me .[0765] This yard so long deserted
was no^w enlivened, ^{for them,} by me.[0766] So we turned, in our
different orbits, I without, they within.

[0767] At night, keeping
watch by turns, they o^bserved me with the help of a searchlight.
[0768] So the seasons came and went.[0769] The children grew in stature, the
periods of Ptomaine ^{grew pale}, the ^ancients glowered at each
other, saying ^{to themselves}, I'll bury you yet, ^You'll bury me yet.[0770] Since my
arrival they had a subject of conversation, and even of discussion,
the same as of ^old, at ^{my setting forth}, perhaps even an
interest in life, the same as of ^old.

[0771] Time hung less heavy on
their hands.[0772] What about throwing him a few scraps?[0773] No, no, it might
upset him.[0774] They did not want to check the impetus that was sweeping
me towards the^m.[0775] You wouldn't know him![0776] True, and yet
^{you can't mistake him}.[0777] They who in the ordinary way never answered when spoken to,
my parents, my wife, she who had ^{fastened on} me, rather than ^on one of
her suitors.[0778] A few more summers and he'll be in our ^midst.

[0779] Where
am I going to put him?[0780] In the basement?[0781] Perhaps after a^ll I am
^simply in the basement.[0782] What possesses him to be stopping all the
time?[0783] Oh he was always like that, ever since he was a ^mite,
always stopping, wasn't he, Granny?

[0784] Yes indeed, never easy, always
stopping.[0785] According to Mahhod I never got there, that is to say
they all died first, the whole ten or eleven of ^them, carried off
by sausage poisoning, in great ^agony.[0786] Incommoded
first by their shrieks, then by the stench of decompos^ition, I had
turned back.

[0787] But ^{not so} fast, otherwise we'll never
^arrive.[0788] It's no longer I in any case.[0789] Will he ever ^{reach us}, at his
present rate of going?[0790] He looks as if he had slowed down, since
last year.[0791] Oh the last ^laps won't take him long.[0792] My missing leg
didn't seem to affect them.[0793] Perhaps it was already ^missing when
I left.[0794] What about throwing him a sponge?[0795] No, no, it might upset
him.In the evening, after supper, while my wife kept her eye on

[0796] In the evening, after supper, while my wife kept her eye on