“Aren’t they fine boys?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Ah! I’ll make hearty little chaps of them, I tell you! They’re such merry, lively rascals!”
“So I see; just tell them not to pinch me so hard. Here’s one of them who won’t let go my calf.”
“It’s only play, my dear fellow. They wake me like this every morning. Tell me, is there any greater pleasure?”
“Yes, to a father, it must be perfectly charming; but to an uncle, you see, it hasn’t quite the same fascination.”
“Parbleu! it rests entirely with you to become acquainted with that pleasure; marry, and have children; they’ll caress you as these little fellows caress me.”
“Oh! I shall do it some day, no doubt.”
“Come, my hearties, kiss your uncle and let him dress.”
To prove their affection, the “hearties” threw themselves on my stomach, seized my head, and, while kissing me, rubbed their faces clean and wiped their noses on my cheeks and nose; they tried to see which would kiss me the more. I was suffocating, I cried for mercy; their papa was forced to order them to desist, but they listened to him no more than to me, and kept on as before. Luckily, my sister arrived and the scene changed.