MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

[1162] to fall ^[₰] I lay down, or I wedged myself ^[⁁]where 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
^[⁁]trouble 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 ^[⁁]bounds. [1166] For even as a child I do not remember e^ver
having ^[⁁]bounded, neither rage nor pain ever made me ^[⁁]bound, even as a child,
however ill-qualified I am to speak of that time. [1167] Now with regard to my
foo^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 b^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 ^{[⁁]could not} 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 ^{[⁁]could not} find it again,
when I felt the desire to eat. [1175] Then I searched high and low, often with
suc^cess, being fairly familiar with the places where I w^as likely to have
been, but often too in vain.

[1176] Or I did not search at all, preferring
hunger and thirst to the ^[⁁]trouble of having to search without being sure
of finding, or ^{of having} 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