Sophie's Misfortunes (chapter 6)

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 6th chapter, by Christopher Peck, Jr.

CW: Animal abuse, animal death





VI - The Bee

Sophie and her cousin, Paul, were playing one day in their room. They were having fun catching flies on the window. As they caught them, they put them in a little paper box that one of their fathers had made for them.

When they had captured a whole bunch, Paul wanted to see what they were doing inside the box.

“Give me the box,” he said to Sophie who was holding it. “Let’s look at what the flies are doing.”

Sophie gave it to him. They cautiously opened the little door on the box. Paul brought the opening to his eye and cried out:

“Oh, it’s so weird! Look at how they’re moving around! They’re fighting each other. There’s one ripping a leg from its friend... the others are angry... oh, look at them fight! There, some of them just fell! Some of them are getting back up…”

“Let me look, it’s my turn, Paul!” Sophie said.

Paul didn’t answer and kept watching and narrating what he was seeing.

Sophie became impatient. She took the box by a corner and gently pulled. Paul pulled on his side. Sophie became angry and pulled a little stronger. Paul pulled even stronger. Sophie jerked the box so roughly that she ripped it. All of the flies came flying out and landed on Paul and Sophie’s eyes, cheeks and noses. The children were slapping themselves to get the flies off.

“It’s your fault,” Sophie said. “If you had been more agreeable, you would’ve given me the box and we wouldn’t have ripped it.”

“No, it’s your fault,” Paul answered. “If you had been less impatient, you would’ve waited your turn and we would still have it.”

“You’re selfish, you only think about yourself!”

“And you get angry like the turkeys in the farm!”

“I do not get angry at all, sir! I just find you despicable!”

“I am not despicable, young lady. I’m just telling you the truth, and that’s why you’re red and angry like the turkeys with their red heads.”

“I don’t want to play with a despicable boy like you anymore!”

“And I don't want to play with a mean girl like you, either!”

The two split up to sulk in separate corners. Sophie got bored really quickly, but she wanted to make Paul believe that she was having a lot of fun. So she started to sing and catch more flies. But there weren’t a lot, and the ones left wouldn’t let her grab them. All of a sudden, she spotted a large bee that was staying still in a corner of the window. Sophie knew that bees stung, so she didn't try to grab it with her fingers. She pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket, put it over the bee and grabbed it before the poor creature had time to get away.

Paul, getting bored in his corner, was watching Sophie and saw her catch the bee.

“What are you going to do with that?” he asked.

“Be quiet, meanie. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Well, excuse me, Ms. Angry,” Paul sassed back. “I beg your forgiveness for speaking to you and forgetting that you weren't raised properly.”

“I'll tell mother, kind sir, that you think I wasn’t raised properly. After all, she’s the one who’s raising me. She’ll be pleased to know,” Sophie mocked.

Paul became worried. “No, Sophie, don’t tell her. They'll scold me.”

“Yes, I’ll tell her! And if you get scolded then good! That’d make me happy.”

“You meanie! I’m done talking to you.”

Paul turned his chair around to not have to look at Sophie, who was pleased to have scared him. She turned her attention back to her bee. She gingerly lifted a corner of the handkerchief and grabbed the bee with her fingers through the handkerchief to prevent it from flying off. She pulled her little knife from her pocket.

“I’m going to cut off its head,” she told herself, “to punish it for all the times it’s stung people.”

Sophie put the bee down on the floor and, still holding it through the handkerchief, cut its head off with her knife. She found it fun, so she continued to cut it into pieces.

She was so busy with the bee, that she didn’t hear her mother enter. Her mother, seeing her on her knees and barely moving, silently approached to see what she was doing. She saw her cutting off the poor bee’s last leg.

Furious with Sophie’s cruelty, Mrs. de Réan pulled her by the ear.

Sophie let out a cry, jumped to her feet and stood trembling before her mother.

“You’re a bad girl, young lady. You’re making that creature suffer despite what I told you when you salted and cut my poor, little fish.”

“I forgot, mother. I swear.”

“I’ll make you remember, young lady. First, by taking away your knife, which I’ll give back to you in a year. Then, by making you wear the pieces of that bee on a ribbon around your neck, until they turn to dust.”

Even though Sophie pleaded with her mother to not make her wear the bee like a necklace, her mother called for the maid. She had her bring a black ribbon, string the pieces of the bee and then attach it to Sophie’s neck.

Paul didn’t dare to say a word. He was distraught. When Sophie was alone, crying and ashamed of her necklace, Paul tried to console her in every way he could think of. He hugged her. He apologized for having said such stupid things to her. He tried to convince her that the bee’s yellow, orange, blue and black went well together and resembled a jet and gemstone necklace. Sophie thanked him for his kindness. Her cousin’s goodwill comforted her a bit. But she was still upset over her necklace.

For a week, the pieces of the bee remained. Finally, one day, Paul was playing with her and he crushed them so thoroughly that only the ribbon remained. He ran to inform his aunt, who allowed him to remove the black lace. And so Sophie was free. Afterwards, she never made any animal suffer.