"He does not understand me, I suppose; but I know how I can explain it to him."
So he rose from the floor, and, by means of a great deal of earnest gesticulation and beckoning, he induced the boy to get up too, and follow him. Rollo led the way into his uncle's chamber. The boy seemed pleased, though a little timid, in going in.
"Uncle George," said Rollo, "here is a boy that cannot talk. Are you willing that I should invite him to go with us to the Garden of Plants?"
"Yes," said Mr. George; "though I don't see how you are going to do it."
Rollo led the boy to the window, and pointed to the carriage, which stood down before the door below. Then he opened a map of Paris which lay upon the table, and found the Garden of Plants laid down upon it, and showed it to the boy. Then he pointed to his uncle George, to Jennie, and to himself, and then to the carriage. Then he made a motion with his hand to denote going. By these gesticulations he conveyed the idea quite distinctly to his new acquaintance that they were all going to the Garden of Plants. He then finally pointed to the boy himself, and also to the carriage, and looked at him with an inquiring look, which he meant as an invitation to the boy to accompany them. The boy paid close attention to all these signs; and when Rollo had finished, instead of either nodding or shaking his head, in token of his accepting or declining the invitation, as Rollo expected he would have done, he took up the map, and, making certain mysterious gestures, which Rollo could not comprehend, he walked off rapidly out of the room.
Rollo looked at his uncle George with an expression of great astonishment on his countenance.
"What does that mean?" said he.
"Perhaps he has gone to ask his father or his mother," suggested Mr. George.
"He has," exclaimed Rollo, "he has; that's it, I'm sure."
So Rollo went out immediately into the hall to wait till the boy came back.