Sophie's Misfortunes (chapter 4)

Les Malheurs de Sophie(in English, Sophie's Misfortunes) is a children's book, written in 1858 by the Countess of Ségur. The original, in French, can be read here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15058
The following is an English translation of the 4th chapter, by Christopher Peck, Jr.

CW: Animal abuse, animal death





IV – The Small Fish

Sophie was a scatterbrain. She often did bad things without thinking.

Here's what happened to her one day:

Her mother had some small fish, no longer than a pin and no fatter than a pigeon quill. Mrs. de Réan loved her small fish, which lived in a bowl full of water with sand at the bottom where they could bury themselves and hide. Every morning, Mrs. de Réan gave her fish bread. Sophie enjoyed watching them as they threw themselves upon the breadcrumbs and fought with each other over them.

One day, her father gave her a beautiful, little knife. Sophie was enchanted with her knife. She used it to cut bread, apples, cookies, flowers and so on.

One morning, Sophie was playing. Her maid gave her some bread, which she cut into little pieces, some almonds, which she cut into slices, and some lettuce. She asked her maid for some oil and vinegar to make salad.

“No,” her maid answered. “I’m willing to give you salt but no oil or vinegar. They could stain your dress.”

Sophie took the salt and put some on her salad. There was a lot left.

“What if I had something to salt?” she asked herself. “I don't want to salt bread. I need some meat or fish... Oh! I've got an idea! I'm going to salt mother's fish. I'll cut some of them into slices with my knife and salt the others whole. It'll be fun! What a lovely dish it'll make!”

And yet Sophie didn’t realize that her mother would no longer have the beautiful, little fish that she loved so much. That those poor creatures would suffer so much from being salted alive or cut into slices.

Sophie ran into the sitting room where the little fish were. She approached the dish and fished them all out. She put them onto one of her plates, went back to her little table and spread some of the poor fish out. But the fish, panicking from being out of the water, wriggled and jumped. To calm them down, Sophie sprinkled some salt onto their backs, their heads and their tails. Indeed, they stopped moving. The poor creatures were dead.

When her plate was full, she took some others and started cutting them into slices. At the first cut, the poor fish twisted out of despair. But they soon stopped moving because they were dying. After the second fish, Sophie noticed that she was killing them by cutting them into pieces. She looked with concern at the salted fish. Seeing that they weren't wriggling, she looked more closely and saw that they were all dead. Sophie turned as red as a cherry.

“What is mother going to say?” she asked herself. “What's going to happen to me!? How can I hide this?”

She pondered for a moment. Her face lit up. She found an excellent way to hide this from her mother.

She quickly collected all the salted and cut fish and put them back in a little plate. She quietly left her room and brought them back to their bowl.

“Mother will believe,” she said, “that they fought each other. That they ripped each other up and killed each other. I'm going to wipe my plates and my knife and get rid of my salt. My maid thankfully hasn't noticed that I went to look for the fish. She's busy with her work and isn't thinking about me.”

Sophie snuck back to her room, sat back down at her little table and continued to play house. After some time, she got up, took a book and started to look at the pictures. But she was worried. She wasn't paying attention to the pictures. She always thought she could hear her mother coming.

All of a sudden, Sophie jumped, blushing. She heard Mrs. de Réan's voice, calling for the servants. She heard her shouting as if she were scolding them. Servants were coming and going. Sophie was afraid her mother would call for her maid or even her herself. But everything calmed down and she didn't hear anything else.

Her maid, who also heard the noise and was curious, left her work and stepped out.

She came back a quarter-hour later.

“How fortunate," she said to Sophie, "that neither of us have left our room! Guess what? Your mother just went to go see her fish. She found them all dead. Some whole, others cut into pieces. She called for all the servants to ask them who the culprit was that killed those poor, little creatures. No one was able to say, or they didn't want to.

“I just met her. She asked me if you've been in the sitting room. Thankfully, I was able to tell her that you haven't left your spot, that you've been having fun with your tea parties.

“She said, ‘That's strange, I would've bet that Sophie was the one who did this.’ ‘Oh, madame!’ I told her. ‘Sophie couldn't have done something so horrible!’ ‘Good!’ your mother said. ‘Because I would've punished her severely. It's fortunate for her that you haven't left her and you assure me that she couldn't have killed my poor fish.’ ‘Oh, of that, madame, I am certain,’ I said.”

Sophie didn't say anything. She stayed still and blushed, her head lowered, her eyes full of tears. For a moment, she felt like confessing to her maid that it was her who did it, but she lacked the courage. The maid, seeing her sad, believed she was upset because the poor, little fish were dead.

“I was certain,” she said, “that you would be sad like your mother because of what happened to those poor creatures. But I have to say that those fish weren't happy in their prison. After all, that bowl was a prison for them. Now that they're dead, they're not suffering anymore. So don't think about it anymore. Come, let me get you ready to go to the sitting room. We're going to eat soon.”

Sophie let her comb her hair and wash her up, without saying a word. She went to the sitting room. Her mother was there.

“Sophie,” she said, “did your maid tell you what happened to my little fish?”

“Yes, mother.”

“If your maid hadn't assured me that you stayed with her in your room, I would've thought that it was you who killed them. All the servants are saying that none of them did it. But I believe the servant, Simon, who was responsible for changing the water and sand every morning, wanted to get rid of that boring task. I believe he killed my poor fish so that he wouldn't have to take care of them any longer. So I'm firing him tomorrow.”

“Oh, mother, that poor man! What will happen to him and his wife and children?”

“Too bad for them. He shouldn't have killed my fish, who never hurt him, who he made suffer by cutting them into pieces.”

“But it wasn't him, mother! I swear it wasn't him!”

“How do you know it wasn't him? I’m sure it was him. It could only have been him. As of tomorrow, I'm getting rid of him.”

“No! Mother, don't do that. I'm the one who took the little fish and killed them!”

“You? Madness! You loved those little fish, you wouldn't have made them suffer and die! I understand you're saying that to protect Simon…”

“No, mother, I'm telling you it was me! Yes, me! I didn't want to kill them, I just wanted to salt them. I thought the salt wouldn't hurt them. I didn't think cutting them would hurt them either because they weren't crying. But when I saw them dead, I brought them back to their bowl, without my maid seeing me going out and coming back.”

Mrs. de Réan sat there for a few moments, so astonished from Sophie's confession that she didn't answer. Sophie timidly raised her eyes and looked at her mother's eyes fixed on her. She didn't look angry or strict.

“Sophie,” Mrs. de Réan said. “If I had found out by chance, that is to say by God's permission for He always punishes the wicked, what you just told me, I would've mercilessly and severely punished you. But the feeling that made you confess your mistake to defend Simon merits your forgiveness. So I won't scold you because I am certain you understand how cruel you were to those poor fish. Salt would kill them and it's impossible to cut and kill any creature without it suffering.”

Seeing that Sophie was crying, she added:

“Don't cry, Sophie. And don't forget that confessing your mistakes will earn you forgiveness.”

Sophie wiped her eyes and thanked her mother. But she spent the whole day a little sad for having caused her little friends, the fish, to die.