"This: when I stop in a village or small town, I cannot make myself sufficiently well known alone; I need an assistant, to go about the town to deliver prospectuses, and to answer for me when I am busy, and make a memorandum of the questions that people want to ask me."
"But I don't choose to be your assistant, as I don't want to learn anything."
"I understand that very well, my friend. Oh! I don't propose to drive you crazy with fatiguing work. I will have you make pills, that's all."
"Yes, pills of all sizes and of all colors. Never fear, it won't be hard; but that isn't all."
"You must be able to sleep when you choose, and to play the sleep-walker when you please."
"Oh! as to sleeping, I can do that all right!"
"When you are asleep, you must answer the questions that are asked you."
"How do you expect me to answer questions when I am asleep?"
"Why, you will pretend to be asleep, my boy; I will explain all that to you. Oh! that is one of the principal branches of my business."
"No, but when I make sleep-walkers talk, and when I make them give remedies to sick people."
"One moment; I am willing to sleep, but I am not willing to give remedies or take them.--Indeed, I have been whipped at home for refusing."
"Oh! you don't understand; when I say remedies, I mean medicines to take----"
"Yes, with a syringe; I know all about that!"
"I tell you that you don't know what I am talking about. You will talk while pretending to be asleep; I will teach you your lesson beforehand, and you will answer the questions asked by invalids or curiosity seekers."
"Pardieu! I can believe that; nor do those people who question the somnambulists; and that is just wherein the charm of it lies; if they knew what to think about it, it would no longer be possible to earn one's living with magnetism and somnambulism. But will you be my assistant and help me with my business, or not? I will feed you well, I will dress you suitably, and you will see the country, for I never stay long in the same place."
"And all I shall have to do for that is to make pills and sleep?"
So I became the little hunchback's assistant. We reached a village that night. My patron went to the best inn, and ordered a very good supper. It seemed to me very pleasant to travel on horseback, without having to worry about my meals. Moreover, I was always at liberty to leave my companion when I chose, and that reason was enough to make me enjoy myself with him; the certainty of being free gives a charm to existence and makes the most trivial incidents enjoyable; bondage, on the contrary, throws a tinge of gloom over all our actions; it causes us to shun pleasure; it takes away all the joy of love, it deprives the heart of all its strength and the imagination of all its vivacity.
