Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-29
fELENE( E&EnRV No W For (REFAN

easy to perceive that the real troubler Of
| those girls was Nicolas.
''Je suis Nicolas, lie coz du village!' he
sang openly, with insolence-'Im Nicolas
the cock of the walk!'-and the girls ad-
| mlred him for it. He was not dressed in
town clothes for Sunday, like Henri and
| Rigobert-he did not need to do 1t. He
| wore pants and a striped shirt unbuttoned
| at the throat. When he kissed one girl the
| others hated her.
In every French village there is one chap
like this; In America the other fellows
to strut and abuse to his hearts content.
"Jeanne, Jeanette ct Jeanneton."
| They were playing Jeanne. Jeanette
ct Jeanneton." the game being older. even,
! than the song:
| Jeanne, Jeannete ct Jeanneton
| Ne veulent plus. dit-on. roster files"
which means that they were all three stuck
| on the same 'coq du village and the old
| song has to do with the misadventures of
| the peasant Paris before he could decide to
| whom to award the apple.
The game, however is played with a rose
and quantities of beans. Suppose all six
| girls and five youths are playing.
The girls stand in a line. The young
men sit about, waiting their turn. Whis-
pering together. the girls have agreed how
many beans each one shall hold concealed
! III Adiid oUc uOiuS Oife Dcdl, AuOluST
! two beans, another three, and so on, up to
six when elk girls play. but not, you I'M
derstand, in any regular order
| The girls stand in line. with their beans
concealed in their fists. The first youth
| steps up. He has the rose In his hand.
| He calls out number-any number he may
fancy. from two up to seyen-when six
| girls are playing.
1t began with a red-headed youth OF the
name of Crepin. He stood in front of the
girls and confidently called out: Three
He brandished his rose in the air. And,
confidently, he stepped up to Helene and
presented 1t to her with an old-fashioned
bow.
Lobster pouted a doll-faced young
| thing named Margot. the word being really
.'gourde," or calabash, but the Specification
Non, Nom laughed all the other girls
And Helene opened her hand. She had
four beans Four and the rose make five.
He had guessed three. No kiss for Crepin;
And he gracefully retired to the log.
The girls again whspered-and reformed
their line Rigobert came with the rose.
After slight hesitation; he called: Six
Did we see d certain fluttering sign come
to him from Marie? We may have been
mistaken. 1t may have been pure luck.
But he walked. then, straight to Marie.
handing her the rose.
Marie Smiled Contentedly.
She opened her hand, smiling contentedly.
Rigobert already mapping out the spot
on her cheek in his minds eye. Marie had
five pebbles in her hand Five and the
rose made six, all right.
kiss her. roared the youths.
When it was done and Marie had wiped
her cheek ostentatiously- etiquette re-
quires-it came the turn of Nicolas.
Now the six girls almost quarreled over
the beans. Then they stood in a tempting
row-au waiting-smilng.
Nicolas. the COG du village" scratched
his left with the rose stem You
would think that all these formalites were
boring and superfiuous to him. He glanced
down the line like a pacha in his harem;
Had | been of the girls brothers I'd
have handed him one on the chin right then.
All the girls were fiuttering. making them
selves charming. He had not yet called his
number. There a chance for each of
them yet.
He called Four
Those peasant girls were willy. One of |
them only, had the three beans in her /
hand. The others had already lost now.
But no shadow of expression of pain or of
disappointment crossed their faces All |
perked up delightedly-as II each one knew |
that she held the right three beans!
No Tip for Nicolas.
You see why? 1t was not to give a tip |
to Nicolas. Their one hope now was to |
prevent him giving the rose to the right !
girl. She was delighted, beaming. There |
fore they beamed with her!
He walked down the line very slowly. |
stopping at each girl most objectionably. |
He leaned over each, If to kiss her on |
the ear-but he did not. AS he came up, |
each girl smiled enticingiy. AS he passed |
on. each girl gave him almost a look Of |
hate
At last he called out: -Four =!
He gave the rose to Berthe.
And all the five girls he had passed by |
called out Non. non.' with delight.
Berthe had five beans.
NO kiss this tmer' the other youths |
sneered
What! No kiss?'" cried the "coa du |
village" insolently. Look, Them
And he kissed Berthe the cheek.
There was painful silence.
We've had enough of THAR the other
young men said. with a dry brevity-and |
the kissing games broke up right then and |
there.
ut always ends thus"' chuckled an old |
grandma. so 1t frequently happened to !