The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-02-05
CHAPTER TX.
The Castle Children,

nc NdSIlC SHiiOTCHs
There was a farm in the Valley
Delesmontes--five miles 1t 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 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 silence. Claire trem-
bed.
1T will go hard with the lad to
give us up" she brought out softly.
He won't give you up; l 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 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 seigneurs 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
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 it Is pleasant and it is for a 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 wha
had happened and how the genera
was now to be father to him as
best he might, and Alike and Francoi!
would be his sister and brother. HI
took the blow dumbly and went abou
his studies next morning, but 70
many days he could not play, ant
only Francois could make him speak
He was handsome-eXtraordi
handsome-and a lovable good child
huf clnu In initiative utbara FRANCOIS
was ready, shy where Francois wa
friends with all the world, steady
going wheSe the peasant boy was bri
liant. Between the two, of such cor
trasting types, was an unshaken bon
from the first, and at this age
seemed to be the little peasant VIII
had everything to give. Smaller phys
ically, weaker in muscle than the bis
boned son of North Italy, he yet too
quite naturally an attitude of protet
tion and guidance, and Pietro accep
ed it without hesitation.
Two years slid past noiselessly, III
noticed, and 1t was vacation time;
was August of the year 1924. The oil
chateau of Vicques-the ruin-la
back behind the corn fields and smile
in hot sunlight.
A tall lad of fourteen another bo
slighter, quicker, darker, and a littl
girl of eleven in short white dres
wandered through the ruins, talkin
earnestly now, silent now, filling tn
grim place with easy laughter agai
Alike and Francois and Pietro wei
growing up; the general alread
grumbled words about kittens turnir
into cats, as he looked at them.
Just behind the great stone there
Alike formulated, was the dogs be
room. OF course, great monsiel
like the dog had his own bedroom
yes, and Office, too-and maybe h
dining-room."
And the joke was enough on th
lazy day Of vacation to set peals
laughter ringing through the ruin
Alike stopped laughing suddenly.
who is that" she demanded. H,
eyes were lifted to the hill rising b