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He knew he could not have spent it all in yesterday's rout, and the conviction forced itself painfully upon his mind that he had been robbed. As the mendicant held forth his cap, he shook his head, and showed his empty hands, at which movement the old man raised his eyebrows inquisitively, and muttered a most disagreeable and chuckling "Hih! hih! hih! hih!"
"Hih, hih! Monsieur; you are very good," puffed the little man, quite out of breath, without looking up at his kind assistant. "Give me a little bean soup, if you please, Monsieur. I am very poor, and very hungry to-day. Must spend one picayune for one cheap dinner, or else must have one cheap coffin made for me at the expense of the corporation! Hih, hih!"
"No,'cause I never thort you cared to know it," returned the other, wiping his eye on the cuff of his coat. "The boys call me King Richard, because, as they say, he was stoop-shouldered like me, Monsieur. They daren't exactly call me humped for fear of my crutches, hih! hih! You can call me Richard, or Dick, or what you choose."
Without hesitation he commanded the boys to leave the picayunes untouched, placed the cane properly in the dwarf's hand, then restored to him the cap, and its scattered contents, at the same time adding a trifle from his own purse, to the little stock. "Hih, hih!" chuckled the little man, for the first time looking up, as he received his treasure; "hih, hih."
He then turned to go away, but catching sight of Guly, he advanced toward him, nodding his head, winking his great eye, and chuckling joyfully to himself. "Hih, Monsieur; not seen you since that day you so sick in bed. Tink of you one great deal miss you great deal need your picayune a great deal love me yet, Monsieur?"
He would always hobble his way back after performing the errand, although the walk was long, to say to Guly: "Hih, hih, Monsieur, but she's a beauty, one of her pretty smiles is as good as a picayune to me; bless her heart; I think, Monsieur, she make you very happy one of these days when you both get old enough for the priest to pronounce you man and wife; hih, hih, that I do."
As he strode away, a strange little figure enveloped in a long coat and a tattered old shawl, the better to protect it from the weather, appeared from the shadow of an adjoining building, and swung himself along between his crutches, muttering to himself: "Hih! hih! get the reward for these thieves watch the papers I will know all about 'em get the reward, hih! hih! hih! hih!" and the darkness swallowed him up as it had done him who had gone before.
"Think you will know and love me there?" "I hope so, Richard." "So do I; in my heart, I do. Ugh! ugh! how cold. Give me your blessing, Monsieur." "God bless you, Richard." "Ugh, Monsieur, I am going. Good-bye. There is a time when life ceases to be sweet. Hih, hih!" The poor cripple threw himself over towards the wall; and, with a shivering moan, died.
The general perceiving by his accent and manner that he was a foreigner, and rather tempted to laugh than be angry, replied with civil scorn, Why she is miss Caroline Campbell, daughter of lord William Campbell, his majesty's late governor of Carolina Oh, Hih! I now recollect thy words! cried Mi Li And so she became princess of China. A true Love Story.
One day as he sat writing, the dwarf with a chuckle made his way to his side, and stood there on his crooked legs panting heavily. "Hih, hih, Monsieur, God spare you yet? God spares the good. Long time, Monsieur, since I saw you." "Long time, indeed, Richard; I scarcely knew what had become of you; I am glad to see you among the living." "Mean that, Monsieur?" "Every word of it."