The citizen., 1914-02-13
CHAPTER TX.
The Castle Children.

There was a farm in the Valley
Delesmontes-five miles it was from
Vicques-which was a dependence Of
the 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 Le 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 silence. Claire trem-
bled.
ut will go hard with the lad to
give us up" she brought out softly.
He won't give you up; should not
respect him If he gave you up" the
general thundered, 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 were
going away to school, and every Fri
day he was to walk to the Ferme du
Val-the Valley Farm-and 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
letter and the boy saw the blood rush
through the weather-hardened skin in
hrown-red flood, and then fade out,
leaving 1t 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
seigneur-it Is the best thing that
, there 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
death ON this earth. For she says one
spends long time with the good God
later, and all ones dear friends come,
and 1t is pleasant and it is for long,
long time, while here it is, after all,
quite short. Is not that true. my
seigneur? My mother said it."
Big little Pietro had to be told what
had happened and how the general
was now to be a father to him as
best he might, and Alike and Francois
would be his sister and brother. He
took the blow dumbly and went about
his studies next morning, but for
many days he could not play. and
only Francois could make him speak
He was handsome-extraordin
handsome-and a lovable good child,
but slow in initiative where Francois
was ready. shy where Francois was
friends with all the world, steady
going where the peasant boy was bril-
liant. Between the two, of such con-
trasting types, was an unshaken bond
from the first, and at this age it
seemed to be the little peasant who
had everything to give. Smaller phys
ically, weaker in muscle than the big
boned son Of North Italy, he yet took
quite naturally an attitude of protec-
tion and guidance. and Pietro accept
ed 1t without hesitation.
Two years slid past noiselessly, un-
noticed, and 1t was vacation time; it
was August of the year 1924. The old
chateau of Vicques-the ruin-lay
back behind the corn fields and smiled
In hot sunlight
n A tall lad of fourteen, another boy,
Rlighter, quicker, darker. and little
girl of eleven In a short white dress,
wandered through the ruins, talking
earnestly now, silent now. filling the
grim place with easy laughter again.