Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Molloy

MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

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Segment 1

[4048] happened then. [4049] But a little later, perhaps a long time later, I found
him stretched on the ground, his head in a pulp.
[4050] I am sorry I cannot
indicate more clearly how this result was obtained,
[4051] it would have been
something worth reading.
[4052] But it is not at this late stage of my relation
that I intend to give way to literature.
[4053] I myself was unscathed, except
for a few scratches I did not discover till the following day.

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Segment 2

[4054] I bent
over him.
[4055] As I did so I realized my leg was bending normally. [4056] He no
longer resembled me.
[4057] I took him by the ankles and dragged him backwards
into the shelter.
[4058] His shoes shone with highly polished blacking. [4059] He wore
fancy socks.
[4060] The trousers slid back, disclosing the white hairless legs.
[4061] H is ankles were bony, like my own. [4062] My fingers encircled them nearly.

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Segment 3

[4063] He was wearing suspenders, one of which had come undone and was hanging
loose.
[4064] This detail went to my heart. [4066] Already my knee was stiffening again.
[4067] It was no longer required to be supple. [4068] I went back to the shelter and took
my son's raincoat.
[4069] I went back to the fire and lay down, with the coat
over me.
[4070] I did not get much sleep, but I got some. [4071] I listened to the
owls.

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Segment 4

[4072] They were not eagle-owls, it was a cry like the whistle of a
locomotive.
[4073] I listened to a nightingale. [4074] And to distant corncrakes.
[4075] If I had heard of other birds that cry and sing at night, I should have
listened to them too.
[4076] I watched the fire dying, my cheek pillowed on my
hands.
[4077] I watched out for the dawn. [4078] It was hardly breaking when I got
up and went to the shelter.

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Segment 5

[4079] His legs too were on the stiff side, but
there was still some play in the hip joints, fortunately.
[4080] I dragged him
into the copse, with frequent rests on the way, but without letting go his
legs, so as not to have to stoop again to pick them up.
[4081] Then I dismantled
the shelter and threw the branches over the body.
[4082] I packed and shouldered
the two bags, took the raincoat and the umbrella.
[4083] In a word I struck camp.
[4084] But before leaving I consulted with myself to make sure I was forgetting

Transcription
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