58
NO RELATIONS.
cafs are full of people. Let us separate and
play in all of them: we shall have a good sum
by night."
After driving our cow into the inn stable,
where we tied her up with several fast knots,
we went to work, each in a different direction;
and when night came, and we counted up our
earnings, Mattia had four francs fifty centimes,
and I had three francs.
With seven and a half francs we were rich;
but the joy of earning those seven francs and
fifty centimes was very insignificant in com-
parison with that of spending the two hundred
and fourteen. %
We induced the kitchen-maid to milk our
cow, and we drank the milk for our supper.
Never had we tasted any so good. Mattia
vowed that it was sugared, and smelt of orange-
flower water, like what he used to drink in the
hospital, only better. In our delight we went
and kissed our cow on her black muzzle, and
evidently she liked the kiss, for she licked our
faces with her rough tongue.
"You see she kisses us!" cried Mattia, de-
lighted.
That our joy at this may be understood, I
must explain that neither Mattia nor I had been
much spoiled by pettings and embraces. Our
lot was different from that of petted children,
who have to repel their mothers' caresses. Yet
we both would have envied these.
The following morning we rose with the sun,
and set out at once for Chavanon. To show
my gratitude to Mattia for the help he had
given me,-for without him I could never have
amassed the large sum of two hundred and
fourteen francs,I wished him to have the
pleasure of driving our cow; and he was in
high delight to guide her along with the tether,
while I walked behind. It was only when we
had left the town that I took my place beside
him, to talk to him and to look at my cow, for
I thought 1 had never seen one so pretty; and
she certainly was fine-looking, walking along
slowly, and swaying her body with dignity, like
an animal that knows her own value.
I had now no need to consult my map every
moment, as I had had to do since leaving Paris.
I knew where I was going, and, although several
years had passed since I had been that road
with Vitalis, I recollected everything I saw.
My intention, in order not to tire the cow,
and also not to arrive at Chavanon at too late
an hour, was to sleep in the village where I had
spent the first night of my pilgrimage with
Vitalis,to lie on the same bed of heather on
which Capi, seeing*my grief, had stretehed him-
self beside me and had laid his paw on my hand
to show me that he would be a friend to me.
Thence-we could start the following morning,
so as to reach Mother Barberin's early.
But fate, which until then had been so favora-
ble to us, now turued against us, and changed
our plans. We had decided to divide the day's
marfih into two parts: one to be accomplished
before breakfast,our own, as well as the cow's,
who was to feed in the ditches as we went
along. At first I wanted to hold her tether;
but she seemed so quiet and so engrossed in
feeding that I soon twisted the rope round her
horns, and sat down near at hand to eat my
bread.                                  #
As a matter of course, we had done long be-
fore she had;, then, after some considerable
time spent in admiring her, we began, not
knowing what else to do, a game of marbles.
Although we had led a life that was very dif-
ferent from that of ordinary children, it did not
prevent us from being children all the same,
and not a day passed that we did not play a
game of leap-frog, marbles, or ball. Mattia
often said to me, all of a sudden, and for no
reason at all, " Let us have a game!" Then in
a twinkling the knapsacks7musical instru-
ments, and all were pitched to one side, and we
began to play on the roadside; and more than
once, were it not for my watch, we would have
played until night. But the watch reminded
me that I was the chief of the troupe, and that
we must work,must earn money to live on.
Then i slung the harp over my galled shoulder
once more, and set off.    Forward!
Our game was over before the cow had done
grazing, and when she saw us coming towards
her she began to bite the grass, gathering it in
with great licks of her tongue, as if to tell us she
Was hungry still.
" Wait a bit longer," said Mattia.
" Don't you know that a cow will go on eat-
ing all day long?"
"A few minutes only."
Meantime we strapped on our hags, and took
up the instruments.
"What if I played her a little tune on the
horn?" said Mattai, who could hardly ever keep
quiet. "We had a cow in the circus who was
very fond of music."
And, without waiting another moment, he set
off playing a trumpet-call.
At the very first note of it, the cow flung up
her head; then, before I could catch hold of
the tether, off she went at a gallop. Off we
went too, after her, racing at our full speed and
calling after her.
I shouted to Capi to stop her, but one cannot
have all the talents. A drover's dog would have
jumped at the cow's nose ; Capi, the learned dog,
tried to catch her by the leg. That, it need not
be said, did not stop her,rather tae contrary;
and we continued our race, she on ahead, and
we behind her.
As I ran along, I kept abusing Mattia for a
stupid animal, and he, without slackening his
speed, cried to me, panting,
" You shall thump me: I deserve it."
We had stopped to rest and eat about two
kilomtres away from a large village, and it was
towards this village that the cow was now gal-
loping. She arrived there before we did, as a
matter of course; but we could see in the dis-
tance that the people ran up and barred her
passage and caught her.
Then we slackened our speed; our|cow would
not be lost; we should only have to ask these
people who had stopped her to give her up to
us, and they would do so.
Accordingly, as we advanced, the crowd about
the cow was growing larger. By the time we
got up, there were some score of people, men.
women, and children, all arguing together and
staring at us.
I had fancied that I had nothing to do but
ask for my cow; but, instead of giving her up
to me, they gathered round us and asked ques-
tion after question.
" Where did we come from? Where did we
get that cow?"
Our answers were as simple as they were
easy; nevertheless, they did not convince these
people, and more than one voice was raised to
teli us that we had stolen that cow, and she had
run away from us, and that we must be put in
prison until the matter was cleared up.
The horrible fear with which the word
" prison " inspired me threw me into a state of
fright which was most prejudicial to us. I grew
pale, stammered, and having lost my breath
running, was incapable of defending myself.
In the midst of the confusion, a gendarme
arrived. He was speedily made acquainted
with the whole business; and, as it seemed to
him to be rather suspicious, he announced that
he would put the cow in pound, and us in
prison, and that the thing must be looked into.
I tried to protest ; Mattia tried to speak. The
gendarme harshly ordered us to be silent; and,
remembering the scene with Vitalis and the
policeman at Toulouse, I told Mattia to be
silent, and to follow monsieur the gendarme.
The whole village escorted us to the mayor's
dwelling, where the prison was. We were sur-
rounded, pushed, shoved, and insulted: I really
believe that but for the gendarme we should
have been stoned like some notorious thieves,
murderers, or incendiaries, notwithstanding we
had committed crime. But the mob is fre-
quently in such a humor that it takes a savage
pleasure in tormenting unfortunate wretches,
without knowing what they have done, whether
they be guilty or not.
When we reached the prison, I had a glimpse
of hope. The man in charge of the mayor's
office was also the jailer and garde champtre,
and he did not want to lock us up. I thought
to myself that he was a good sort of man ; but
the gendarme insisted upon it, and the jailer
yielded. Going before us, he opened the door,
which was locked from the outside and bolted.
Then I saw why he had made a difficulty at first
about putting us in. The reason was that
he had put his crop of onions to dry in the
prison, and there they were spread out all over
the floor. We were searched, and all our money
was taken from us, our knives, our matches;
and meantime the jailer was hard at work pick-
ing up his onions and heaping them together in
one corner. Then they left us, shutting the
door behind them with a clash that was truly
tragical.
" In prison! and for how long?"
I was repeating these words, when Mattia
crept over to me.
" Beat me," he said ; "beat me! You could
never strike too hard for my stupidity."
"You did a foolish thing, and I allowed you
to do it.    I was as foolish as you."
" I wish you would beat me; I should not
feel so grieved then. Our poor cow 1 the poor
cow !"   And he began to cry.
I consoled him, telling him that our plight
was not so bad after all: we had done nothing,
and it would not be so hard to prove that we
had bought our cow. The kind veterinarian at
Ussel would testify to that.
" And if they accuse us of having stolen the
money whioh we paid for her, how can we
prove that we earned it? We have no luck:
they will prove us guilty of something or other."
Mattia was right. Unfortunate people are
always treated harshly. Did not the boo tings
which followed us to prison prove that?
"And then, too," continued Mattia, through
his tears, " when we get out of this prison,
when they give us back our cow, are you sure
we shall find Mother Barberin?"
" Why wouldn't we find her?"
" It is so long: she may have died since you
left her."
This fear struck me to the very heart. It
was true that Mother Barberin might have died,
for, notwithstanding that I was not at an age
when the thought of death is easily admitted, I
knew by experience that those whom we love
can be lost but too easily; had 1 not lost Vitalis?
How was it that this idea had not struck me
before?
" Why didn't you say that sooner?" I asked.
" Because when I am happy I have nothing
but cheerful thoughts in my head, just as when
I am unhappy I have only sad ones. And I
was so happy at the notion pf presenting the
cow to your Mother Barberin, that I could see
Mother Barberin's satisfaction and ours, and I
was giddy as if I were tipsy."
" Your head isn't more stupid than mine, my
poor Mattia, for my ideas were the very same
as yours: like you I have been dazsled and
tipsy."
"Ah! ah! the cow indeed!" cried Mattia,
sobbing through his tears: " what a chance you
have!"
Then all at once he jumped up, gesticulating:
"If Mother Barberin were dead, and that
horrid Barberin were alive, he might take away
the cow from us; he might take away yourself."
It was surely the influence of tbe prison that
provoked these dreary thoughts; it was the
shouting of the crowd, the harshness of the
gendarme ; it was the lock and the bolts when
the door had been shut on us.
" Who will feed her? who will milk her?"
cried Mattia, who was thinking of the cow's
misfortunes as well as of our own.
Several hours passed in this sad mood, and
as the time went on we grew more dismal. I
tried to comfort Mattia by telling him that they
were coming to examine us.
"Well, what shall we say?"
"The truth."
" Then you will be put in Barberin's hands
again ; or if Mother Barberin is at home by her-
self, they will go and question her too, to know
if we are not lying, and then we won't be able
to arrange the surprise for her."
At last our door opened with a horrible
clanging din, aud we saw an old gentleman
come in: he had white hair, and his open, kind
expression of face restored our hopes at once.
"Now, little rascals, stand up and answer
the magistrate's questions."
"That will do; that will do," said the magis-
trate, making a sign to the jailer to leave him.
"I will undertake to question that one," point-
ing to me with his finger. "Take away the
other and guard him : I shall examine him after-
wards."
I thought that under these circumstances I
ought to warn Mattia about his answers.
" Like me, monsieur the magistrate, he will
tell you tbe truth, the whole truth."
" That will do; that will do," interrupted the
magistrate, as if he wanted to cut me short.
Mattia went out, not without contriving to
give me a rapid glance to say that he under-
stood me.
"You are accused of having stolen a cow,"
said the magistrate, looking me straight in the
face.
I answered that we had bought the cow at the
fair at Ussel ; and I named the veterinarian who
had helped us in the buying.
" That will be proved."