“Am I not an idiot! How can a fellow shoot a duck without powder and shot? What’s the use of this stupid wooden thing, anyway?” With that he flung the gun and his pouch and belt into the lake.
But poor Fanchon was weeping at the loss of her doll, and Frederic was annoyed at the way things had turned out, so they both crept back sadly to the house. And when their mother asked them what had become of the playthings, Frederic truthfully related how they had been deceived by the harper, the hunter, the doll, and all.
“Ah! you foolish children!” cried their mother half in anger, “you do not deserve to have nice toys!”
But the Count, who had been listening to Frederic’s tale, said: “Let the children alone. I am really glad that they are fairly rid of those playthings. There was something queer about them.”
But neither the children nor their mother understood what the Count meant.
THE STRANGER CHILD
Soon after these events very early one morning Fanchon and Frederic ran off to the wood. They were feeling sad, for their mother had told them that they must return home soon to study, so as to be ready for the tutor that their rich cousin had promised to send them. For the tutor was expected shortly.
“Let us run and jump as much as we can now,” said Frederic, when they reached the wood, “for in a little while we shall not be allowed to stay out here at all!”
So they began to play hide-and-seek, but everything went wrong. The wind carried Frederic’s hat into the bushes. He stumbled and fell on his nose as he was running. Fanchon found herself hanging by her clothes on a thorn-tree, and she banged her foot against a sharp stone so that she shrieked with pain. In fact the children could not understand what was the matter with them on this particular day; and they gave up their game, and slunk dejectedly through the wood. Frederic threw himself down under a shady tree, and Fanchon followed his example. And there the two children lay gloomy and wretched, gazing on the ground.
“Ah!” said Fanchon, “if we only had our playthings!”