The Hospital
"Come, arouse thee, comrade! It shall not be said that two sons of Provençe have let this midnight pass without sprinkling a drop of claret!" And Salvette lifts him up with the tenderness of a mother. He fills the goblets, cuts the bread, and then they drink and talk of Provençe.
Little by little Bernadou grows animated and moved by the occasion,—the white wine, the remembrances! With that child-like manner which the sick find in the depths of their feebleness he asks Salvette to sing a Provençal Noël. His comrade asks which: "The Host," or "The Three Kings," or "St. Joseph Has Told Me"?
"No; I like the 'Shepherds' best. We chant that always at home."
"Then, here's for the 'Shepherds.'"
And in a low voice, his head between the curtains, Salvette began to sing.
All at once, at the last couplet, when the shepherds, coming to see Jesus in His stable, have placed in the manger their offerings of fresh eggs and cheeses, and when, bowing with an affable air,
"Joseph says, 'Go! be very sage:
Return, and make you good voyage,
Shepherds,
Take your leave!'"