‘Some day,’ thought Pierre, as he opened his satchel and broke off a corner of his sandwich, ‘when the days are longer, and my legs do not feel so tired—in a month perhaps—I will run away, and walk to St Brieuc, and there perhaps I may find a boat, and I will go to England. And when I am in England, then I will remember.’
CHAPTER XVIII.
RUNNING AWAY.
FOR another hour or two Pierre lay still in the sun, munching his black bread slowly, and keeping a watchful eye on Nanette; then he suddenly bethought himself that if he went to the top of the hill he would be able to see the high road which he knew lay on the other side, and which ran from Carhaix to Londéac. He had only twice caught a glimpse of it: once when he had been sent up the hillside after some goats which had strayed, and another time when the old woman had gone with the post-cart to Carhaix, and he had walked to meet the cart with her, to help her to carry her butter and eggs.
As a rule he was so closely watched that he had never had time to wander so far alone; but to-day he saw his opportunity, for if he lay just on the top of the hill he would still be in sight of the cottage, and he could keep one eye on Nanette, while he watched the road with the other in the hope of seeing something unusual to break the dreary monotony of his life.
He climbed up to his point of vantage, and found it was as he had thought. While he could see the whole length of the secluded little valley in which the cottage stood, he could also see, on the other side, a long range of hills over which the highway ran, white, and winding like a serpent, until it was lost in a richly wooded plain far in the distance.
Pierre followed its course with longing eyes.
‘If one follows that road one comes to Carhaix,’ he thought, ‘then from Carhaix one can go to St Brieuc, and after that one can go to England. I wonder how long it would take me to walk to St Brieuc?’
Just then his attention was arrested by a couple of cyclists who came spinning along the smooth road. Evidently they were making their way to Londéac, for their faces were set in the other direction from that in which the post-cart went to Carhaix.