It was about this time that I installed myself in my aunt Claire's room
for the purpose of study, and there too I busied myself manufacturing
wonders for the “Donkey's Skin.” I took possession of the place as
entirely as an army occupies a conquered country--I would not admit the
possibility of being in the way.
My aunt Claire was the person who petted me most. And it was she who was
always so careful of my little things. She always looked after my finery
or anything uncommonly fragile, things that the least breath of air
would have blown away--such exquisitely delicate trifles, for example,
as the wings of a butterfly, or the bright scale of a beetle, intended
for the costumes of our nymphs and fairies--when I said to her: “Will
you please take care of this, dear auntie?” I felt that I could be easy
about it, for I knew that no one would be allowed to touch it.
One of the great attractions in her room was a bear that was used
for holding burnt-almonds; and I often visited the place for the sole
purpose of paying my respects to this animal. He was made of china and
he sat upon his hind legs in the corner of the mantelpiece. According to
a compact that I had with my aunt, every time that his head was turned
to the side (and I found it so several times during a day) it meant that
there was an almond or some other kind of candy for me. When I had eaten
this I straightened his head to indicate that I had been there, and then
I departed.
Aunt Claire enjoyed helping us with the “Donkey's Skin”; she worked
enthusiastically over the costumes and each day I gave her some task.
She was especially skilful in devising hair for the fairies and nymphs;
she managed to fix upon their tiny heads, about as big as the end of
a little finger, blond wigs made of light silk thread, this thread she
twined upon the finest wires and thus she was able to twist it into
beautiful ringlets.
Then when it became absolutely necessary for me to study my lessons, in
the feverish haste of the last half hour that I reserved for my task,
after having wasted my time in idleness of every sort, it was aunt
Claire who came to my rescue; she would open the large dictionary and
hunt up for me the unfamiliar words in the exercises and lessons. She
also took up the study of Greek in order to assist me with my lessons
in that language. When I studied my Greek I always led my aunt Claire to
the stairway and I sprawled there upon the steps, my feet higher than
my head; for two or three years that was the classic pose I took for the
study of the Iliad, or Xenophon's Cyropedia.