Taking the Bastile

d when the body was taken to the churchyard and interred, he sat down by the grave and replied to all pleadings for h

e guardian was a physician, found him when he hastene

had left welfare with the boy: every time Ange heard his mother pronounce the benefactor's name, it had been almost with worship. Finally, when he appeared, grown up, adorned with the title of Physician, joining to the past boons the future

od that he came at his mother's appeal and he could not say no to him as to the others. He made him no resis

s taken to the town tailor's, where he was fitted with clothes: they were made too larg

x, where Pitou's pace slacked. He recalled this as being the abode

she cultivated in their stead a natural dose of greedy intelligence, augmented daily by her association with all the prudes. She did not precisely live on public charity but besides the sale of linen thread hand-spun, and letting out chairs in the church, sh

that Gilbert led little Pitou. We might say

piece to go and keep company with the rest of her hoard. She was going around her seat of revenue

rvation, and physiognomist, read the character of the hypocritical old maid at a glance. With her long

turned sour and replied that, whatever her love for her poor sister, and her interest in her dear little nephew,

run me into six cents a day extra, for tha

he could tuck away a pound a

for his washing, for he

moles and climbing trees, this was true enough; but it is fa

and the Christian virtues so well, make such cl

iser, recalling the quantity of patches she had seen sewn

er your nephew in your house-the orphan boy who w

sgrace befalling her as if she d

ke charge of h

, delighted to find a m

gustin Monastery and have them

onent of all the churchmen. He resolved to tear this recruit from the enemy with

find somebody else to take him and the sum I am going to set aside for his maintenance. I am obliged to return to America. Meanwhile I must apprentice the boy to some craft, which he

ted to be in token of eternal separation. But the mention of a sum of money and Gilbert's movements of putt

n all the wide world can love this poor lone

s cheeks a couple of kisses so sour that they made hi

t still you are too poor

he Father of the fatherless above and that He has promised that a swallow s

to be bound out as a servant. I am afraid to do with Ange as

t," said the old devotee, with her eyes rivet

ly on condition that the boy should

, as true as the sheep are tempered for the storm

ed with coin; "I am ready to deposit the funds,

usiness man and she

ought up to some trade and boarded, etc., for two hundred

rs with a farmer on some property of his, named Bi

advance of the maintenance fund, buried eig

iting to make up the amount of a gold piece to be p

aunt; he had foreseen the sorrow, disappointme

made a remark on this agreement, the tender aunt rejoined that her nephew was too delicate to be put out to work. The lawyer had admired his clie

, Ange resumed his truant life in the woods, as led at

g, he made some birdlime and having a four-pound loaf und

ack at nightfall, but he expected to p

e crept in which he recognized as inflicted by her hard hand. Happily he had a hard head, too, and though the blow staggered him, he

inuing to grumble for form's sake but ope

t Angelique," replied Pit

e old maid who was greedy in

e good to eat-but they are better to sell.

steal them, yo

s only to set up limed twigs anywhere round the water and the silly birds

h birds with lime?

nnocence, but birdlime; it is

ere did you get the m

aphead to buy th

rds are to be had

r, of course, you cannot catch on T

ed at the brightness her nephew was

f approval del

go elsewhere. When you are not catching birds, you snare ha

er nephew who was com

n do the

id," for Pitou had never supposed he

snaring hares?"

es and rabbits when I

ght, ma

atching his head. "I must buy that at t

does i

it ought to catch half a dozen bunnies-and the snares are

nt Angelique, "go and buy wire

ho was touched by this honesty. For an instant she felt like giving him the cent but unfortunately for Ange, it had been flattened by a hammer and might b

iously for a bag. In it she put the bread and cheese

f larks to Abbe Fortier, and two brace to the Golden Ball innkeeper, who paid

lessing of heaven had entere

r thrown away," she observed as she munched the rob

bag on his shoulders; Aunt Angelique receiv

aid he with the calmness of

" cried the aunt, stretching o

g for and he would feel suspicion. But when he challenged me with the bag, I just answered him: 'I am gathering beechmast, father-it is not forbidden to g

st instead of catching rabbits,

of mast-gathering: the old donkey sa

the woman, bent on

welve and I will go and s

into the wood

t is there to

adth of his speculations. But brought up in the woods,

for the innocent lad, never in his ideas offending an

to imitate the barking of a dog so naturally that the gamekeeper's basset "Snorer," decei

re home his master was surely asleep ther

, Pitou stuffed them into the pockets of a c

ugh she had lain down. She had

ult that I have not done better but these a

h three rabbits. Two went to the tavern and one to Abbe Fortier

nd Ange thinking life endurable. Except for his mother's loss, matt

ke the jar of illusion of the prud

ittle ward on landing, but asked Master Niquet if his instructions had been

first-rate health. He was tall and lank but so are hickory

he was leading, but it was quiet at the time; not only did the cold weather drive the birds away but t

e the stripling so wretched that he was ready to t

ed in her cruelly tormented br

r students attached to his school, ou

teacher nothing, and to say nothing of the game on which the woman had been nou

ceived without fee

r. Gilbert's son was educated. He paid fifty livres and Ange got in for

. But when three or four of the budding tyrants made the acquaintance of Pitou's enormous fist and were trodden under his even more enormous foot, respect began to be diffused. He would have had a life a shade

ly into her nephew. She basked in the golden ray from dreamland that in three yea

, when he would, of course, m

o this delusion. Ange crawled in

'Gelique, who had never seen a mo

ied Pitou

a cause of alarm to good mothers and

ther Fortier sends me home from school-so no mor

woman stared at him to try to read in

ou are always roaming round Farmer Billet's place to catch a sight of hi

hook h

he growing certainty that it was a serious scrape. "Last Sunda

eved the end justified the means, and a whale-

n me there," cried Ange; "for we

tch, you see yo

is concerned in," ventured Ange, blushing l

for her, the flirt, the jilt, the mincing minx! I wi

ble oath that she

yourself. This is going on fine. What is the world coming to, whe

herine will not let me 'arm' her

now. Oh, why not Kate, or Kitty, or some such silly nickname which you use in your

ught of that," exclaimed the

l manage all this. I will ask Father Fortier to lock you up on bread and water for

atically that Pit

pleaded he, clasping his hands: "Miss Cath

f all the vices," returne

cted the youth: "the teacher put me out because I made too many barbarism

become of

od, with Aunt 'Gelique as housekeeper as Paradise on earth. "Let co

ee you have got hold of these ne

into Philosophy till I have passed Rhet

ophers, not what a pious man like the priest would allow in his holy house. You are a serpent and you have been g

. The danger was imminent. She took the sublime resolution to run to Fath