As he approached the house, he found that he was beginning to rebel at the bread and water diet.
Bread and water alone, with just a little cheese, begin to grow monotonous to a healthy boy with a good appetite, after two or three days.
Suddenly Napoleon had a brilliant idea. "The shepherd boys!" he exclaimed.
He hurried to the house, took from Saveria the bread she had put aside for him, and was speedily out of the house again.
This time he took his way to the grazing-lands, where, upon the slopes of the grand mountains that wall in the town of Ajaccio, the shepherd boys were tending their scattered herds.
"Who will exchange chestnut bread for the best town bread in Ajaccio?" he demanded. "I will give piece for piece."
Those shepherd boys led a lonely sort of life, and welcomed anything that was novel. Then, too, they were as tired of their bread, made from pounded chestnuts, as was Napoleon of Saveria's wheat bread.
So Napoleon found a ready response to his offer.
"Here! I'll do it!"—"and I"—"and I"—"and I"—came the answers, in such numbers that Napoleon saw that his little stock would soon be exhausted; and, indeed, he was not overfond of chestnut bread.
So he improved on his idea.