The Secret of Toni

Toni also found another use for Jacques. When he wished to say things which his mother occasionally and properly cuffed him for, he could talk it all out with Jacques. This seemed supremely absurd to Paul Verney and the other boys in the neighborhood, notably the five sons of Clery, the tailor, who jeered at Toni when they discovered his relations with Jacques. But Toni was as insensible to ridicule as to reproof. The only thing that really moved him was when his mother had rheumatism and her knees swelled. Then Toni would cry as if his heart would break, the big tears running down his dirty face as he sobbed and buried his fists in his hair, and would not be comforted, even though his mother could sit in her chair by the stove, and stir the candy kettle, and would give him the kettle to lick, after she had poured the candy out. But this was never more than once or twice a year, and the rest of the time Toni was as happy and as free from care as the birdlings in spring that sang under the linden trees in the park.