"Oh, you haven't it right. You must put pegs in here, then you can pull it up. And this is the way you go."
Pani's deft fingers went in and out like a bit of machinery. It was forest lore, and he was at home in it.
"You make it beautiful," exclaimed Pierre. "Oh, go slower, so I can understand."
Pani smiled with the praise and put in a word of explanation now and then. The boys were fast becoming friends.
"Maman," Pierre cried, "come and see how fine the boy does it. If he would come and live with us!"
"I might come a little while and look after the garden. And I could catch fish and I know the best places for berries, and the grapes will soon be ripening. And the plums. I can shoot birds with an arrow. But I belong to mam'selle."
"If she will let you come now and then," wistfully.
"Yes, I might," with an air of condescension.
"Thou art a pretty little lady," was Mère Gaudrion's parting benison to the little girl, and Rose smiled. "Come again often."
When they were out of the narrow passageway she said, "Now let us have a race. I am glad Mère Dubray is there no longer, are you not? But what a funny pile of children!"