My Young Days | Page 4

there Mr. Owen and Jane talked
and talked till I got tired of the hot air, and went to play outside; and
there just outside was Gus, always waiting to pick me the prettiest
flowers, and find me the first sweet violets. But I was shy, and his
words were so foreign that they frightened me; nor did I like at all
being called "Petite mademoiselle," which was not my name, and

couldn't mean anything that I could think of. At last I grew braver, and
one day I ventured to ask--
"Who is your papa?"
"Me hab no papa, no mamma!" he said, looking very full at me.
"Where do you live then?" I asked. "You're not a bit like Bobbie!"
"Me live wid de Capitaine; me never will leaf de Capitaine--never,
never, never!" he answered eagerly.
This made me feel very queer, and I think I looked half-frightened, for
his look changed quickly, and he said, smiling his own sunny smile--
"Me fetch petite mademoiselle somet'ing nice; me fetch de puss dat de
Capitaine just bring home!"
A pussy! That sounded pleasant, and I waited eagerly for his return. I
waited a long time, as it seemed, and I had grown tired, and was
looking for daisies on the grass, when I heard his step and the tap of his
favourite holly-stick on the gravel. What a funny boy he was to call that
"something nice"!
There he stood, his eyes and mouth all one smile, and held out at arm's
length by the ears a dead rabbit. My look and exclamation of horror
made him grave at once.
[Illustration: POOR DEAD PUSSY!]
"Oh, the poor little rabbit!" I cried. "Has Uncle Hugh killed him quite
dead?"
"Yes, yes, he quite dead! De Capitaine's gun kill him quite, de small
dog pick him up. Petite mademoiselle not frighten, he quite dead!"
Ah, that was just the reason of my fright! Away I ran to Jane, and hid
my face in her gown; and a very vigorous scolding did she give the
French boy when she found what he had done.

Poor fellow! he was very much disconcerted, and did not know what to
say. Two hours after he came back, and finding me alone just going for
a drive, he said softly--
"Little puss all alive now, run away in de voods. Petite mademoiselle,
come see?"
What did he mean? The rabbit could not be "quite dead" at one time,
and "all alive" afterwards. But grandmamma was coming downstairs,
and I had no time to answer him. By and by, when I was lying back on
the soft cushions stroking grandmamma's pretty white fur, I told her all
my puzzle.
"Ah, my pet," she said, "poor Gus had a very cruel French father, and
doesn't know any better. He ran away from home when your uncle's
ship was touching at Marseilles, and hid himself in the hold. They
found him when they got out to sea--a little stowaway the sailors called
him--and your uncle liked his dark, pitiful eyes, and was very kind to
him; but he has not learnt much yet that's good. Don't have too much to
say to him, my darling!"
Well, it wasn't very likely I should, for he and I found it not very easy
to understand each other; yet he liked to do anything he could for me,
and was always watching to see what I wanted.
Nearly a year after that, I remember, it was very cold, and the little
southern boy felt it especially. He had grown ever so tall and thin, but
not strong, and he went about looking blue and shivery. How I came to
be still at the Park I will tell you in another place, but there I was, and
my friend Gus won my pity by his wretched looks. I used to look at his
blue hands, and wonder what could be done. At last I remembered a
pair of warm knitted gloves, that had been given me, which I never
wore. They had no fingers, only a thumb, and I doubted whether Gus
would wear them; but I made up my mind that he would be glad
anyhow to keep his chilblains from the wind.
I don't think I shall ever forget his look when I presented them to him,
holding them by the pretty blue wool which fastened them together.

That his "petite mademoiselle" should think of him, and make him a
present, too! and then that that present should be one that he could not
anyhow use! It was fairly too much for him; he looked at them, he
looked at me, turned furiously red, stammered, stuttered, turned round,
and literally ran away!
I never tried to make him a second present.

IV.
MY