There came a blow with a stick.

It was Punchinello who bestowed it on the cat.

It was not good for her; it hurt her.

Then a lady put Punchinello in prison.

There came a blow with a stick. It was Punchinello who bestowed it on the cat. It was not good for her; it hurt her. Then a lady put Punchinello in prison.

It was there that a little abandoned child, a foundling whom the convent was bringing up out of charity, uttered this sweet and heartbreaking saying. She heard the others talking of their mothers, and she murmured in her corner:⁠—