The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1912-02-26
CHAPTER TX.
The Castle Children.

There was a farm in the Valley
Deleemontes-iye miles 1t was from
Vicques-which was a dependence OF
the seigneury; for centuries the same
family had held II, and 1t was con.
sidered the richest holding for a peas.
ant in that part Of the world. Just
now the family all at once came to
an end. 1t was necessary to find new
tenants, and the general offered the
place to LIE Francois and La Claire.
Even in their best days they had not
been so prosperous as this would
make them. But what about Fran
co.'s? The general glowered at them
from deep eyes.
There's always a screw somewhere
in every good thing. This time it's
the boy"
There was a silence. Claire trem.
bled.
1T will go hard with the lad to
give us up" she brought out softly.
HE won't give you up; | should not
respect him IL he gave you up" the
general Numbered, and the two peas
ants breathed more freely. This great
good fortune was not, after all, the
price of their son.
BY degrees the three came to an
understanding. A tutor was to be en-.
gagged for the three children; Francois
was to live at the castle as fit
should be explained to him-he we're
going away to school, and every Fri.
day he was to walk to the Ferme du
val-the Valley Farmland stay with
his people until Sunday afternoon.
This new order Of things was well
settled before six months had passed
after the going of the Marquis Zappi.
And then in three or four months
more something happened.
Francois was alone with the general
when the letter come. His eyes were
on his %seigneur's face as he read the
letterNand the boy saw the blood rush
through the weather-hardened skin in
a brown-red food, and then fade out,
leaving it gray. The boy had never
seen the. general look so. With that,
the big arms were thrown out on the
liable and the big grizzled head fell
Into them.
Then he lifted his head and told
the boy how the friend whom he had
found lately, after so many years of
separation, had gone away not to come
back in this life, and how Pietro was
fhtherless. Francois, holding tightly
with both fists to the generals hand,
listened ~wide-eyed, struck t the heart.
But he had a brave life, my
seigneur-it is the best thing that
here is. My mother said so. My
mother told me that we shall smile
later, when we are with the good
God, to think that we ever feared
Heath on this earth. For she says one
Spends a long time with the good God
later, and all ones dear friends come,
hnd 1t is pleasant and 1t is for n long,
long time, while here II is, after all,
quite short. Is not that true. my
b~eigneur? My mother said It."
Big little Pietro had to be told what
pad happened and how the general
was now to be a father to him as
pest he might, and Alike and Francois
would be his sister and brother. He
took the blow dumbly and went about
PTS studies next morning. but for
many days he could not play, and
only Francois could make him speak
pc was handsome-eXtraordinarily
handsome-and n lovable good child,
pun slow In initiative where Francois
vas ready, shy where Francois was
rlends with all the world, steady.
gong where the peasant boy was bril-
PANT. Between the two, of such con.
trasting types, was an mistaken bond
rom the first, and at this age II
seemed to be the little peasant who
everything to give. Smaller phys.
lcally, weaker in muscle than the big.
poned son of North Italy, he yet took
quite naturally an attitude of protec-
non and guidance, and Pietro accept.
ed 1t without hesitation.
Two years slid past nolselessly, un.
houced, and 1t was vacation time; II
was August of the year 1924. The old
chateau of VicQues-the ruin-lay
pack behind the corn fields and smiled
n hot sunlight.
a TALL lad of fourteen, another boy
snghter' quicker. darker. and a little
siri OF eleven in a short white dress,
~"anuered through the ruins, talking
earnestly now, silent now, filling the
I'm place with easy laughter again.
niAe n Francois and Pietro we're
e.oWing up; the general already
umoied words about kittens turning
Nn.O cats, as he looked at them.
Just behind the great stone there
e formulated, was the dogs bed.
1,Sn VI course, a great monsieur
,Ae the dog had his own bedroom
Is, and office. too-and maybe his
dining.room." ~
Aho the Joke was enough on that
a OF vacation to set peals OF
AIIy sa' ringing through the ruins.
aW stopped laughing suddenly.
VINO is thatf she demanded. Her
b,ns were lifted to the hill rising be.