"And what was your trade? You stole game; you stole fish; no danger in that, coward!"
"Fish, as well as game, belong to no one; to-day in one place, to-morrow in another; it is for who can get it. I do not steal; as for being a coward—-"
"You fight for money men who are weaker than you are!"
"Because they have beaten those who are weaker than they are!"
"Trade of a coward! Trade of a coward!"
"There are more honest, it is true; it is not for you to tell me of it."
"Why have you not followed these honest callings, instead of lounging here and living at my expense?"
"I give you the first fish I take, and what money I have—it is not much, but it is enough. I cost you nothing. I have tried to be a locksmith, to gain more; but when one from his infancy has idled on the river and in the woods, one can't do anything else; it is done for life. And besides, I have always preferred to live alone, on the river or in the woods; there no one questions me. Instead of that, in other places, if any one should ask me of my father, must I not answer— guillotined! of my brother—galley-slave! of my sister—thief!"
"And of your mother, what would you say!"
"I'd say she was dead."