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Updated: May 15, 2025
"Monsieur Espinassous?" inquired Mattia. Fluttering like a bird, the dapper little man, who was in the act of shaving a man, replied: "I am Monsieur Espinassous."
I am pleased to tell you that she's in good health and gives the same fine quantity of milk, so I am very comfortably off now, and I never look at her without thinking of you and your little friend Mattia. Let me have news of you sometimes, dear boy, you are so tender and affectionate, and I hope, now you have found your family, they will all love you as you deserve to be loved.
If I did not bring him back the thirty or forty sous that he demanded of me, I should have to be whipped by Ricardo. Ah, I understood now how Mattia could speak of death so calmly. The first lash of the whip, as it cut into the flesh, made the tears spring to my eyes. I thought that I was forgotten, but I made a mistake; Garofoli was looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
"And I haven't any money," he added, "and I haven't had a bite to eat since yesterday." I was not rich, but I had enough to give something to poor Mattia. How I would have blessed one who would have given me a crust of bread when I was wandering round Toulouse, famished like Mattia now. "Stay here until I come back," I said.
We took long walks, all three of us, Lise, Mattia and I, accompanied by the doll and Capi. I was very happy those few days. In the evening we sat in front of the house when it was not too damp and before the fireplace when the mist was thick. I played the harp and Mattia played his violin or cornet. Lise preferred the harp, which made me very proud.
We played in every town and village on the road, and by the time we had reached Ussel we had collected two hundred and forty francs. We had to economize in every possible manner to save this sum, but Mattia was just as interested and eager to buy the animal as I. He wanted it to be white; I wanted brown in memory of poor Rousette.
"Don't you dare say so, Mattia," I cried, springing up from my seat; "you are speaking of my father and mother and I must respect them and love them." "Yes, so you should if they are your people, but ... are they?" "You forget their many proofs." "You don't resemble your father or your mother. Their children are all fair, while you are dark.
Mattia and I bought it for you with the money we earned." "Oh, the dear boys!" she cried, kissing us both. She now went inside the shed to examine her present. At each discovery she gave a shriek of delight. "What a beautiful cow," she exclaimed. Then she turned round suddenly. "Say, you must be very rich now?" "I should say so," laughed Mattia; "we've got fifty-eight sous left."
The silence oppressed me, the uneven, jagged walls of our place of refuge seemed as though they would fall and crush me beneath their weight. Should I never see Lise again, and Arthur, and Mrs. Milligan, and dear old Mattia. Would they be able to make little Lise understand that I was dead, and that I could not bring her news from her brothers and sister!
When we had finished our game, she was still eating. As I went to her, she pulled at the grass sharply, as much as to say that she was still hungry. "Wait a little," said Mattia. "Don't you know that a cow can eat all day long?" I replied. "Well, wait a little." We got our baggage and instruments together, but still she would not stop eating.
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