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Updated: June 7, 2025
"Yes, Capi, you're a good, faithful friend, but, alas! without the others we can't do much now." "But my harp...." "If I had two children like you it would be better. But an old man with just one little boy is bad business. I am not old enough. Now, if I were only blind or broken down! I am not in a pitiful state enough for people to stop and notice us.
"The General thinks that after his servant has had something to eat he won't be such an idiot," explained Vitalis. I sat down at the little table; a table napkin was placed on my plate. What was I to do with the napkin? Capi made a sign for me to use it. After looking at it thoughtfully for a moment, I blew my nose.
"Yes, for it was that which gave Lise back her speech," I said, smiling at my wife who stood beside me. Our guests drew round us in a circle. A dog suddenly came forward. Good old Capi, he is very old and deaf but he still has good eyesight. From the cushion which he occupies he has recognized the harp and up he comes, limping, for "the Performance."
Pretty-Heart pulled my hair and chuckled with glee. We did not go far. At the first tree that we saw I placed my harp against the trunk and sat down on the grass. The dogs sat opposite me, Capi in the middle, Dulcie at one side, Zerbino on the other. Pretty-Heart, who was not tired, stood up on the watch, ready to snatch the first piece that he could. To eke out the meal was a delicate matter.
I don't want Capi to become a thief any more than I want to be one myself, and if I thought that I ever should become a thief, I'd drown myself at once with my dog." My father looked me full in the face. I thought he was going to strike me. His eyes gleamed. I did not flinch.
It was from these children that I got a taste for candy, for they always came with their pockets stuffed with sweets which they divided between Pretty-Heart, the dogs, and myself. But when the spring approached our audience grew smaller. One by one, two by two, the little ones came to shake hands with Pretty-Heart, Capi, and Dulcie. They had come to say good-by. They were going away.
"Now do that over again," he said severely, when a mistake had been made. "That is bad, Capi. I'll scold you, Pretty-Heart, if you don't pay attention." And that was all, but yet it was enough. "Take the dogs for an example," he said, while teaching me; "compare them with Pretty-Heart. Pretty-Heart has, perhaps, vivacity and intelligence, but he has no patience.
At each lock we had news of the Swan; every one had seen the beautiful barge and they spoke of the kind English lady and the little boy lying on a sofa under the veranda. We drew nearer to Lise's home, two more days, then one, then only a few hours. We came in sight of the house. We were not walking now, we were running. Capi, who seemed to know where we were going, started ahead at a gallop.
"We'll go up the Seine and ask all the fishermen along the banks if they've seen the Swan. It isn't like any other boat from what you say, and if they've seen it they'll remember." Before beginning the long journey that was probably ahead of us I bought some soft soap to clean Capi. To me, Capi yellow was not Capi. We washed him thoroughly, each one taking it in turns until he was tired out.
Holding his head high and with chest thrown out, he kept time with his arms and feet while gayly playing his fife. Behind him came Capi, carrying Pretty-Heart on his back, wearing the uniform of an English general, a red coat and trousers trimmed with gold braid and helmet topped with a plume. Zerbino and Dulcie came next, at a respectful distance. I brought up the rear.
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