This morning again he tried everything to
persuade me. Oh! what a shrewd, wheedling little rascal he is! but when
he saw that it couldn't be, monsieur lost his temper: he went off into
the fields, and I haven't seen him all day."
"I saw him," said Marie, trying to force back her tears. "He was running
toward the woods with the Soulas children, and I thought it likely he
had been away for some time, for he was hungry, and was eating wild
plums and blackberries off the bushes. I gave him some bread from my
luncheon, and he said: 'Thanks, my dear little Marie; when you come to
our house, I'll give you some cake.' The little fellow is just too
winning, Germain!"
"Yes, he is a winning child, and I don't know what I wouldn't do for
him," the ploughman replied. "If his grandmother hadn't had more sense
than I, I couldn't have kept from taking him with me when I saw him
crying so hard that his poor little heart was all swollen."
"Well! why didn't you bring him, Germain? he wouldn't have been in the
way; he's so good when you do what he wants you to."
"It seems that he would have been in the way where I am going. At
least, that was Pere Maurice's opinion.--For my part, I should have
said, on the contrary, that we ought to see how he would be received,
and that nobody could help taking kindly to such a dear child.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48