little Marmot, the fault was all Candlewick's! . . .'
'And who is this Candlewick?'
'One of my schoolfellows. I wanted to return home: I wanted to be obedient. I wished to study and to earn a good character . . . but Candlewick said to me: "Why should you bother yourself by studying? Why should you go to school? . . . Come with us instead to the 'Land of Boobies': there we shall none of us have to learn: there we shall amuse ourselves from morning to night, and we shall always be merry."'
'And why did you follow the advice of that false friend? of that bad companion?'
'Why? . . . Because, my dear little Marmot, I am a puppet with no sense . . . and with no heart. Ah! if I had had the least heart I should never have left that good Fairy who loved me like a mamma, and who had done so much for me! . . . and I should be no longer a puppet . . . for I should by this time have become a little boy like so many others! But if I meet Candlewick, woe to him! He shall hear what I think of him! . . .'
And he turned to go out. But when he reached the door he remembered his donkey's ears, and feeling ashamed to show them in public, what do you think he did? He took a big cotton cap, and putting it on
