Chapter 41 three larks

Blindly vicious and unable to develop.The condition of the inn was not good. Fortunately, with the woman's fifty-seven francs, Thenardier was spared from the court, and the promissory notes he issued also maintained their credibility.When he was still short of money the next month, the woman took Cosette's accessories to Paris and put a deposit of sixty francs on the pawnbroker.Immediately after the money was spent, the Thenardiers believed that they were doing charity by taking the child, and the child was therefore often treated in his house as a dole.When her clothes were foreclosed, they made her wear the old skirts and gowns of the little Thénardiers, that is to say, tattered skirts and gowns.They gave her the leftovers of everyone's food, and she ate better than the dog, and worse than the cat, and the cat and the dog were often her meal companions; Like a tub, eat under the table with cats and dogs.

Her mother, who took up residence at Montreuil-sur-Mer, as we shall see later, wrote, or, it should be said, sent letters every month asking for news of her children.The Thenardiers replied in the same way: "Cosette is very well." After the first six months were over, her mother sent the seven francs for the seventh month, and she sent them every month, quite punctually.Before a year had passed, Mr. Thenardier said: "What an honor she has done us! What does she want us to do with her seven francs?" And he wrote demanding twelve francs.They told the mother that her child was happy and safe, and the mother gave in and sent twelve francs.

Some people cannot love one side and not hate the other.Madame Thenardier loved her two daughters so much that she hated the foreign child.A mother's love can have its ugly side, which is disappointing to think about.Although Cosette occupied only a small place in her house, she felt that she had robbed her family of enjoyment, as if the child had reduced the air her two little girls had to breathe.That woman, like so many women of her type, had a certain amount of fondling and a certain amount of beatings to vent every day.If she had not had Cosette, her two daughters, in spite of all their love, would have been beaten and scolded by her.But the girl from outside acted as their substitute and received the beating and scolding instead.Her own two daughters had nothing but her caress.Every movement of Cosette was met with a hailstorm of blows, most violent and unreasonable.A soft, weak child who didn't know a thing about life or God, who got away with being punished, abused, abused, beaten all the time, and had to watch those two girls like her enjoy their childhood happiness!

As Madame Thenardier was cruel, so were Eponine and Azma.Children, at that young age, are always mother's reprints.Versions vary in size only. One year passed, another year. The people in the village said: "The first Dana family were good people. They weren't well off, and they were raising a poor kid they left behind!" Everyone thought that Cosette had been forgotten by her mother. At the same time, the Thenardier man learned from some secret report that the child was probably born illegitimately, and the mother could not admit it, so he charged fifteen francs a month, saying that the "brute" had grown up and "wanted food." , and threatened to return the child. "She doesn't listen to me!" he shouted. "I don't care if she doesn't lie, but give her the baby back. I'll have to add my money." The mother sent fifteen francs.

Year after year, as the child grew, her suffering increased. Cosette had always been the substitute for the two children in her infancy; when her body had just grown up, that is to say, she had not even reached the age of five, she became the servant of the family again. Five years old, some people may say, that may not be true.well!true.The beginning of suffering in human society is not limited to age.Haven't we recently seen the case of Dumera, an orphan turned bandit who, according to official documents, "worked and robbed" alone in the world from the age of five? They asked Cosette to do chores, clean the house, the yard, the street, wash the dishes, and even carry heavy things.Her mother had always lived at Montreuil-sur-Mer, and the Thénardiers saw that she was not sending money as punctually as before, and the Thénardiers felt all the more justified in treating the child in this way.No money has been sent for several months.

Had the mother come to Montfermeil at the end of that third year, she would not have known her child.Cosette, who was so beautiful and rosy when she came to this house, is now yellow and thin.She acted, and she didn't know why she was so timid.The Thenardiers used to say that she was "ghostly"! The unfair treatment made her irritable, and the hardship of life made her ugly.She had only her beautiful eyes, which made it hard to see, because they were so big, and it seemed that there was a lot of sorrow in them. In winter, I saw this poor child who was not yet six years old dressed in rags, shivering in the cold, holding a big broom before dawn, sweeping the streets with her little red hands, a drop of teardrop hanging on her face. On the side of her big eyes, it's so painful.

There, everyone called her Lark.The little girl was not much bigger than a bird, and she was always trembling. Everything made her panic and tremble. Every morning, she was always the first to wake up in that family and that village, and she was on the street before dawn. Shang or Tianli, people who generally love to use metaphors took this name for her. But the lark never sang.