The Yale expositor., 1914-01-29
CHAPTER TX.
The Castle Children.

There was farm in the Valley
Delesmontes-five miles it was from
Sicques-Which was a dependence OF
Chss seigneury; for centuries the same
,family had held it, and it 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
1n every good thing. This time it's
tbe boy"
There was a silence. Claire trem.
bled.
1T will &c hard with the lad to
glve us up" she brought out softly.
He won't give you up; l should not
respect him if 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
vas to live at the castle as fit
should be explained to him-he were
going away to school, and every Fri
day he was to walk to the Ferme du
Tul
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 we're
un mis- seigneur's face as he read the
letter and 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
table 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
fatherless. Francois, holding tightly
with both fists to the generals hand
listened wide-eyed, struck to the heart
but he had a brave life, my
peigneur-it is the best thing tina,
there is. My mother said so. My
mother told me that we shall smile
later, when we are with the gooC
God, to think that we ever feared
death on this earth For she says one
spends a long time with the good Coo
later, and all ones dear friends come
and it is pleasant and it is for long
long time, while here il Is, after all
quite short. Is not that true, m!
seigneur? My mother said It,"
Big little Pietro had to be told wha
had happened and how the genera
WAS now to be a father to him a.
best he might, and Alike and Francoi
would be his sister and brother II,
took the blow dumbly and went abou
his studies next morning, but 70
many days he could not play. an
only Francois could make him speak
FEe was handsome-extraordi
handsome-and a lovable good child
hut slow in initiative where Frapcoi
was ready, shy where Francois wa
friends with all the world. steady
going where the peasant boy was bri
liant Between the two, Of such cor
tTasting types, was an mistaken bon
from the first, and at this age
seemed to be the little peasant VIII
had everything to give. Smaller ply
fcally, weaker In muscle than the BIZ
boned son Of North Italy, he yet too
quite naturally an attitude of prote
ton and guidance, and Pietro accep
ed IL without hesitation.
Two years slid past noiselessly, u
noticed, and It was vacation time;
was August of the year 1924. The o
chateau of vicques-the ruin-ls
hack behind the corn fields and smile
in hot sunlight.
A tall lad OF fourteen, another DO
sIigbter, quicker. darker, and a lit
zfrI of eleven In short white dres
wandered through the ruins, talkil
earnestly now, silent now, filling q
xzim place with easy laughter agai