Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

CXI - Count Up Quickly

I found it amusing, and I do not deny it to you now, despite the past tense, of the successes that have taken place, and of this or that sympathy to the mouse that I find in me; had grace. I do not mind telling him; those who love nature as she wants to be loved, without partial repudiation or unjust exclusions, do not find anything inferior to her. I love the mouse, I do not dislike the cat. I've thought about making them live together, but I've seen that they're incompatible. In truth, one gnaws me the books, another the cheese; but it is not much that I forgive you if I have already forgiven a dog who has taken my rest in worse circumstances. I'll tell the case quickly.

That's when Ezekiel was born; his mother had a fever, Sancha lived by her, and three dogs on the street barked all night. I looked for the prosecutor, and it was as if I were looking for the reader, who only now knows this. So I decided to kill them; I bought poison, I had three balls of meat, and I put the drugs myself. At night, I left; it was an hour; neither the patient nor the nurse could sleep with the sound of dogs. When they saw me, they moved away, two of them descended to the side of the Flamengo beach, one stood a short distance, as if waiting. I went to him, whistling and tapping his fingers. The devil still barked, but relied on the signs of friendship, he kept quiet until he was silent. As I continued, he came to me, slowly, wagging his tail, which is his way of laughing at them; I had poisoned balls already in my hand, and I was going to throw one of them in, when that special laughter, affection, confidence or whatever, bound me at will; I stayed like this, I do not know how, touched with feather and I kept the balls in my pocket. It seemed to the reader that it was the scent of the flesh that sent the dog into silence. I do not say no; I take care that he did not want to attribute me a perfidy to the gesture, and he surrendered to me. The bottom line is he got rid of it.