Volume II Part 70 (1/2)
”He is a madcap!”
”Oh! yes, so young, and so wicked, Francois!”
”Tortillard is much younger; and he would be quite as bad, if he had the strength.”
”Oh! yes, he is very bad. The other day he struck me because I would not play with him.”
”He struck you? good--the next time he comes--”
”No, no, Francois, it was only in fun.”
”You are sure?”
”Yes, very sure.”
”Very well--or--but I do not know where he gets so much money from; when he came here with La Chouette, he showed us some gold pieces of twenty francs.”
”How impudent he looked when he told us, 'You could have just the same, if you were not little duffers.'”
”Duffers?”
”Yes, that means stupid fools.”
”Oh, yes! true.”
”Forty francs--in gold--how many fine things I would buy with that!
And you, Amandine?”
”Oh! I likewise.”
”And what would you buy?”
”Let me see,” said the child, in a meditative manner; ”in the first place I would get a warm coat for brother Martial, so that he should not be cold in his boat.”
”But for yourself--for yourself?”
”I would like an infant Saviour, in wax, with his lamb and cross, like the image-man had on Sunday, you know, at the door of the church of Asnieres.”
”I hope no one will tell mother Calabash that they saw us at church.”
”True, she has so often forbidden us to enter one. It is a pity, for a church is very nice inside, is it not, Francois?”
”Yes, what fine candlesticks!”
”And the picture of the Holy Virgin! how good she looks!”
”And the lamps; and the fine cloth on the table at the end, where the priest said ma.s.s, with his two friends dressed like himself, who gave him water and wine.”
”Say, Francois, do you recollect last year, the Fete-Dieu, when we saw from here all the little communicants, in their white veils, pa.s.s over the bridge?”