Page 4        

                                                                                                                                                                    `                                                                                   

that I didn't want anybody around, and when I
was some distance away, I sat down on the grass. There, I used to talk with the little
flowers or the Good Lord.

A moment later, I looked behind me, and there I found Maximin sitting close to me. Straightaway he
says to me: "Keep me with you. I'll be very good."

But the natural evil in me will not hear reason. I jump to my feet, and run a little farther off
without saying a word and again I start playing with the little flowers of the Good Lord. In an
instant, Maximin was there again, telling me he would be very good, that he wouldn't talk, that he
would get bored all by himself, and that his Master had sent him to be with me, etc. This time, I
took pity, I gestured to him to sit down, and I kept on playing with the little flowers of the Good Lord.

It wasn't long before Maximin broke the silence by bursting into laughter (I think he was mak­
ing fun of me). I look at him and he says to me: "Let's have some fun, let's make up a game". I
said nothing in reply, for I was so ignorant I didn't understand what games with other people
were, always having been alone. I played with the flowers, on my own, and Maximin came right up
close to me, doing nothing but laughing, telling me that flowers didn't have ears to listen to me
and that we should play together instead. But I had no liking for the game he told me to
play. I started talking to him, however, and he