“Come home with me,” he said, “please come; Mamma Madeleine will give you some nice butter. Come and you can see Jacqueleine; she’s awful pretty, I tell you.”
“Who is Jacqueleine, my boy?”
“She’s our goat; she sleeps by me.”
“And is your home far away?”
“No, it’s right over there.”
Auguste submitted to be led away. Coco repeating: “It’s right over there,” gave his companion another half-hour’s walk. At last they came in sight of a wretched hovel, the thatched roof of which had fallen in in several places, standing on a crossroad, and Coco shouted: “Here we are; do you see our house?” Then he pulled his companion’s sleeve, to make him run with him.
An old woman sat in front of the hovel; she was thin and bent, and her complexion reminded one of an Egyptian mummy. But a strong, shrill voice emerged from her fragile body.
“So here you are at last, lazybones!” she said to the child; “what have you been doing so long? Where’s the bowl?”
Coco looked at Auguste, whom he was already accustomed to look upon as his protector; Auguste told Mère Madeleine the same fable that he had told Père Calleux, reinforced once more by the five-franc piece, which was the irresistible argument. At that the old woman tried to soften her voice, and urged Auguste to come in for a drink of goat’s milk and some fresh butter, which were all that she could offer him. The young dandy entered the cabin. His heart sickened at the sight of that wretched habitation. The home of the Calleux family consisted of a single room. It was a large room, but the daylight lighted only a small part of it. The bare earth formed the floor; the walls, half whitewashed, had nothing upon them to conceal their nakedness; the thatched roof threatened disaster. Two cot beds, in the darkest corner, had no curtains to shelter them from the wind which entered on all sides. An old buffet, a chest, a table and a few chairs were the only other furniture.
“Where on earth do you sleep?” Auguste asked the child. He led him to a corner of the room, where it was almost impossible to see anything, and pointed out a small straw bed on the floor, with a dilapidated woolen coverlet thrown over it. Close beside it was a goat, lying in some straw that was spread on the ground.