"Pretty soon," continued the narrator, "pretty soon she give a jerk with his head, and the piece of wood jump toward it and scare my cow. Well, she start to run down the road, and I'm run after it and holler, 'Whoa, Bess, whoa!' but she's so scare she ain't stop.
"By and by my cow stop, all play out." Antoine placed himself before Betty, who was sitting on a footstool near Aunt Florence, while Gerald and Billy were standing near their mother's chair, the refuge they sought when Antoine was running after his cow. "Well, as I'm say, my cow stop all play out. She stand right there on front that stick of wood." Antoine certainly mistook Betty for the stick of wood. "She's stand there and look straight at it, and she's go, 'Woof! woof! woof!' and his tail she's go round and round," and Antoine's arms made wide circles in the air, "but she's all right; she ain't hurt at all, so I'm catch my cow and take it home, and I'm pretty glad she ain't hurt at all. Now I ain't tie my cow to no more black stick of wood. I told you that right now."
In the midst of the laugh that followed, and while Billy was pulling at the Frenchman's sleeve, beseeching him to tell another story, the marine reporter came home. Immediately Antoine told his errand, and made his escape from the presence of the clamouring children, laughing, shrugging his shoulders, and declaring that he would sometime tell them all the stories they would listen to. Thus Aunt Florence lost an opportunity to deliver her first temperance lecture.
Scarcely had the door closed behind Antoine when it was opened by Billy, who followed his friend into the yard.
"Here, Antoine," he called, "take this orange to 'Phonse. Mamma gave me one, and Betty one, and Gerald one."
"It's a good little Beely," was the remark that filled the small boy's heart with pride, as Antoine slipped the treasure in his pocket.
CHAPTER VI.
ORANGES
After supper Billy thought longingly of his orange. He wondered if it was thick-skinned and if it was juicy. He felt pretty sure it was sweet, and the more he thought of it the sweeter it seemed to his imagination. Billy was just saying to himself that, if he had not given away his orange, he would eat it without asking his mother for sugar, when he stumbled upon Gerald leaning over the wood-box in the kitchen.
"What are you doing out here all alone?" demanded Billy.