15 Looking Back by Guy De Maupassant

3 children, 2 girls and 1 boy, went to bed while Abbé Mauduit Curé, an old priest, was talking to Comtesse de Saville, a grandmother. Comtesse asked Curé why he did not live an ordinary life like everybody else did. Curé began telling her his childhood. He was sent to a boarding school when he was still very young. He was very sensitive, and the boarding school experience without love of his parents made him afraid of everything around him. His parents were wholesale haberdashers (male clothes) at Verdiers and were wealthy. He felt that children's nerves are very sensitive and delicate, easily affected. He cried everyday in his bed thinking about the little things he had done in his home. He was tortured by homesick pain and loneliness. He became pessimistic. He believed that he has no hope in the future. He believed that he will be killed by his pain and struggles. After he graduated, he was given 6 months to choose his career. His parents didn't love him with their hearts, but with his head. They welcomed him to take over their business. He was on his home one day, a thin red spaniel dog with long curly ears ran towards him. Then stopped. He patted him gently and the dog followed him home. This is the first time he loved a creature so passionately. He felt that this dog was his brother, because he also loved him back by licking his face, wagging his tail, and following him everywhere he went. Sam, the dog, sit on his knee or beside him when he sat down on the grass. One day at the end of June, when they were walking on the road to Saint-Pierre-de-Chavrol, he saw a bus running like a horse in full speed. Sam wanting to get closer to Curé ran in front of the bus. He saw Sam almost cut in half by the bus and died in a few minutes. He could not leave his room for 1 month because of his death. His father than asked him how he can survive if his future wife and children die if now he could not stand a dog dies. He decided to devote himself to serve others. As long as he is not experiencing the feeling himself, he will be able to survive. Now he only has to feel sympathy for others. He was not made for this world. She said that she would not be able to live without her grandchildren either. Then he left and she kept thinking about what don't happen to young people.