They were on their return from school, and were awaiting the priest's call to attend confession. The burden of their sins did not appear to weigh very heavily upon these small reprobates, as they chatted away to me with great friendliness, imparting to me their great desire to travel and to visit England, and showing particular curiosity as to the appearance and disposition of my mother.
"Isn't she very unhappy," asked the handsome little Jaenne with the gleaming eyes, "to think you are so far away from her?"
"My mother wouldn't let me go," said the small, freckled, mischievous-looking Sophie; "not now at least. But I'll go some day, when I'm big."
"It's very beautiful in England, isn't it?" asked Jaenne. "Much more beautiful than Corsica? Is it very cold?"
"I should like to live in England," remarked Sophie, sagely, "because everybody is very rich there!"
Beyond the church, and down the road for some distance, lie pretty scattered tombs surrounded by foliage, and reposing against wooded or grassy hills, and beyond these a populous little cemetery.
After strolling in this direction, Nos. 2 and 3 returned to the town, and went into the cathedral at one side of the Grande Place.
As we walked up the long flight of stone steps leading to it, a group of children rushed after us, shouting and dancing, and pursuing us round the interior of the church itself. Not much was to be seen there. It was a gloomy, dusty-looking place, far inferior in attractions to the graceful, well-kept little St. Amiens; but the Virgin's altar stood out in magnificence of large blue and silver-spangled curtains, surrounded by flowers, real and artificial.
Hastening down the steps again, we soon got rid of our tormentors, and walked to the other end of the town to make a quick sketch of the boulder cross.
During the two or three minutes that we stood there, a crowd of forty children speedily collected, with the addition of one man and two women. The smell of garlic was suffocating; but good breeding prevailed, and a dead silence pervaded the interested group, one and all bent upon a polite and stealthy peep over our shoulders. For this purpose, a low wall behind was in great request, and one or two boys got upon each other's shoulders to attain the desired end.