In a family of this size, it was a case of every fellow shift for
himself, which rule Napoleon followed out with a vengeance. He himself
said in later years: "I was self-willed and obstinate, nothing awed me,
nothing disconcerted me. I was quarrelsome, exasperating; I feared no
one. I gave a blow here and a scratch there. Every one was afraid of
me. My brother Joseph was the one with whom I had the most to do. He
was beaten, bitten, scolded. I complained that he did not get over it
soon enough."
His mother alone was able to manage him, but she had other things to do
as well; so it is not strange that he escaped from the leash. He
relates one amusing incident where he was caught red-handed.
In the garden behind their house was a clump of fig trees, which
Napoleon was fond of climbing. His mother forbade him to do so, both
for fear of damage to himself and to the fruit, but the self-willed boy
persisted. "One day when I was idle, and at a loss for something to
do," he relates, "I took it in my head to long for some of those figs.
They were ripe; no one saw me, or could know anything of the matter. I
made my escape, ran to the tree, and gathered the whole. My appetite
being satisfied, I was providing for the future by filling my pockets,
when an unlucky gardener came in sight.
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