MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[1162] to fall, I lay down, or I wedged myself as I stood so firmly that nothing
short of an earthquake could have dislodged me, and I waited. [1163] But these
were precautions I did not always take, preferring the fall to the
nuisance of having to lie down or stand fast. [1164] Whereas the falls I
suffered when with Lousse did not give me a chance to circumvent them.
[1165] But all the same they surprised me less, they were more in keeping with
me, than the little leps.

[1166] For even as a child I do not remember er^ver
having leaped, neither rage nor pain ever made me leap, even as a child,
however ill-qualified I am to speak of that time. [1167] Now with regard to my
fooe^d, it seems to me I ate it as when and where it best suited me. [1168] I
never had to call for it. [1169] It was brought to me, wherever I happened to
be, on a tray.

[1170] I can still see the tray, almost at will, it was round,
with a low rim, to keep the things from falling off, and coated with red
lacquer, cracking here and there. [1171] It was small too, as became a tray
having to hold a single dish and one slab of bread. [1172] For the little I
ate I crammed into my mouth with my hands, and the ba^ottles I drank from
the bottle were brought to me separately, in a basket.

[1173] But this basket
made no impression on me, good or bad, and I couldn't tell you what it
was like. [1174] And many a time, having strayed for one reason or another from
the place where the meal had been brought to me, I couldn't find it again,
when I felt the desire to eat. [1175] Then I searched high and low, often with
sucf^cess, being fairly familiar with the places where I wq^as likely to have
been, but often too in vain.

[1176] Or I did not search at all, preferring
hunger and thirst to the nuisance of having to search without being sure
of finding, or to ask for another tray to be brought, and another basket,
or the same, to the place where I was. [1177] It was then I regretted my
sucking-stone. [1178] And when I talk of preferring, for example, or regretting,
it must not be supposed that I opted for the least evil, and adopted it,
for that would be wrong. [1179] But not knowing exactly what I was doing or