Little Poems in Prose

hand, re recoiled actively, as if he had feared that my offer was not made in earnest, or that I might already be repenting of it. But at the same instant he was overthrown by another little savage, risen from I know not where, and so exactly like the first that one might have taken him for his twin brother. They rolled together on the ground, disputing the precious prey, neither wishing to give up half to his brother. The first, exasperated, seized the second by the hair, but the other caught his ear with his teeth and spat out a bleeding morsel of it, with a superb oath in his uncouth dialect. The lawful owner of the cake strove to dig his little claws into the eyes of the usurper; the other used all his force to strangle his adversary with one hand, while with the other he tried to slip the prize of the fight into his pocket. But, re-animated by despair, the bitten one got up again and sent his conqueror rolling to the ground by butting him in the stomach. But why should I describe the hide- ous struggle, which lasted indeed far longer than their puerile powers had led me to ex- pect? The cake journeyed from hand to hand and changed from pocket to pocket at each in- stant, but alas! it changed also in size, and when at last, exhausted, panting, bleeding, they stopped for lack of strength to go on,