Chapter XVII
AT THE OLD GREEN MILL-INN
“It’s the old mill. We’ve walked all night and we’ve only come to the mill!”
Marie Josephine stood still in the middle of the road. They had come out from the cool shade of the forest road and the early morning sunshine greeted them. The sky was faintly blue and everywhere there was the sleepy twitter of birds.
They had walked steadily all night, except for occasional rests by the wayside.
“We might have our déjeuner here, some hot coffee and a petit pain. We can rest while we eat it,” suggested Marie Josephine, and Jean assented eagerly. He was too excited as yet to be really tired, it was all so utterly new to him. He had never been as far as the forest by the old mill in all his life. He kept thinking over and over:
“Petite Mère will soon be waking and she’ll find that I’m gone!”
As they came up to the mill-inn, a woman stood in the doorway. When she saw her, Marie Josephine stopped, hesitated, and would have turned away but the woman said sharply:
“What do you want, you two little tramps?”
Marie Josephine answered, “We’re not tramps, but we’re very hungry and want some breakfast. We can pay for it.”
“You’re not to say that she is a tramp,” put in Jean indignantly, nodding toward Marie Josephine. The woman paid no attention to him. She was looking steadily at Marie Josephine, and as she looked, Marie Josephine could feel the color come into her cheeks. Could it be that the inn woman recognized her as the young Mademoiselle who had eaten déjeuner there the summer before? There was something about the woman which was familiar, something more than the remembrance of the summer before. Marie Josephine caught her breath. She suddenly remembered the figure she had seen under the oak tree after dinner the night before. She caught Jean’s hand and started to turn away, but at that moment the woman gave an exclamation and looked off toward the forest path. The children followed her glance. There, coming toward them, running lightly, and clearing a big mud puddle in the middle of the road with a bound, was Flambeau!