“Oh! mon Dieu! she is unconscious! Honorine! dear love! come to yourself! the danger is all over. She doesn’t hear me—she doesn’t open her eyes! And no one near! How can I obtain help here?”
Ami walked about the unconscious woman, then gazed at Agathe, who was in dire distress; he seemed to be trying to read in her eyes what she wanted of him. Suddenly he bounded away and disappeared.
The girl knelt beside her companion, raised her head and rested it against her breast, took her hands and called her name. But Honorine did not recover consciousness, and Agathe, in despair, cast her eyes over the deserted fields, crying:
“Mon Dieu! no one will come to our help!”
At that moment a small boy, poorly clad, with bare feet and hair waving in the wind, appeared on a piece of rising ground from which he could see the path.
Agathe saw him and called to him:
“Go and bring us some water, I beg you, my friend; call someone to come and help me take care of my friend.”
The boy’s only reply was a sneering laugh; then he went away, leaping in the air and crying:
“They’re afraid of the cow! that’s good! I’ll throw stones at the cow again and make her run at folks.”
The small boy disappeared, but the girl’s wishes had been understood by Ami; he ran where he knew that he would find his master, and by pulling persistently at his jacket made him understand that it was urgently necessary that he should go with him.