Finding a Real Mother
“Forward! March! Children!” cried Mattia after we had thanked the woman. “It is not only Arthur and Mrs. Milligan now that we are going after, but Lise. What luck! Who knows what’s in store for us!”
We went on our way in search of the Swan, only stopping just to sleep and to earn a few sous.
“From Switzerland one goes to Italy,” said Mattia softly. “If, while running after Mrs. Milligan, we get to Lucca, how happy my little Christina will be.”
Poor dear Mattia! He was helping me to seek those I loved and I had done nothing to help him see his little sister.
At Lyons we gained on the Swan. It was now only six weeks ahead of us. I doubted if we could catch up with it before it reached Switzerland. And then I did not know that the river Rhone was not navigable up to the Lake of Geneva. We had thought that Mrs. Milligan would go right to Switzerland on her boat. What was my surprise when arriving at the next town to see the Swan in the distance. We began to run along the banks of the river. What was the matter? Everything was closed up on the barge. There were no flowers on the veranda. What had happened to Arthur? We stopped, looking at each other both with the same sorrowful thoughts.
A man who had charge of the boat told us that the English lady had gone to Switzerland with a sick boy and a little dumb girl. They had gone in a carriage with a maid; the other servants had followed with the baggage. We breathed again.
“Where is the lady?” asked Mattia.
“She has taken a villa at Vevy, but I cannot say where; she is going to spend the summer there.”
We started for Vevy. Now they were not traveling away from us. They had stopped and we should be sure to find them at Vevy if we searched. We arrived there with three sous in our pockets and the soles off our boots. But Vevy is not a little village; it is a town, and as for asking for Mrs. Milligan, or even an English lady with a sick son and a dumb girl, we knew that that would be absurd. There are so many English in Vevy; the place is almost like an English pleasure resort. The best way, we thought, was to go to all the houses where they might be likely to live. That would not be difficult; we had only to play our music in every street. We tried everywhere, but yet we could see no signs of Mrs. Milligan.