Alphonse Daudet's Short Stories Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Goat of Monsieur Seguin To M. Pierre Gringoire, Lyrical Poet at Paris YOU will always be the same, my poor Gringoire! Think of it! you are offered the place of reporter on a respectable Paris newspaper, and you have the assurance to refuse! Why, look at yourself, unhappy youth! look at that worn-out doublet, those dilapidated breeches, that gaunt face, which cries aloud that it is hungry. And this is where your passion for rhyme has brought you! this is the result of your ten years of loyal service among the pages of my lord Apollo! Are n't you ashamed, finally ? Be a reporter, you idiot; be a reporter! You will earn honest crowns, you. will have your special seat at Brebant's, and you will beable to appear every first night with a new feather in your cap. No ? You will not ? You propose to remain perfectly free to the end? Well! just listen to the story of Monsieur Seguin's goat. You will see what one gains by attempting to remain free. Monsieur Seguin had never had good luck with his goats. He lost them all in the same way; some fine morning they broke their cord and went off to the mountain, and there the wolf ate them. Neither their master's petting, nor fear of the wolf, nor anything else deterred them. They were, it would seem, independent goats, determined to have fresh air and liberty at any price. Honest Monsieur Seguin, who was unable to understand the temperament of h's beasts, was dismayed. He said: "I am done; the goats are bored at my house, and I won't keep another one." However, he did not get discouraged, andafter losing six goats all in the same way, he bought a seventh; but that time he was very careful to buy a very young one, so that it would be more likely to become accustomed to living with him. Ah! Monsieur Seguin's little ...Read More