WHICH INTRODUCES THE READER TO AN ADMIRER OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS.
Now, Peter's father was a person of some consequence, or, to speak
quite correctly, thought himself of some consequence, which, as you
will probably find when you grow older, often comes to much the same
thing. He had his own piece of land, and his own herd of cows, which
the boys, in the spring time, would help Gustavus to drive, along with
the cows of their neighbours, to the wide, grass lands that border
the forest on the west, where the blue salvias, and gentians, and
campanulas, and St. Bruno's white lilies grow in the long grass. But
years ago Peter's father had been a soldier in the French army, and
had fought in great battles, and had been in Italy, and even across
the sea to Africa. He could tell surprising stories of sandy deserts,
and camels, and lions, and Arabs, and a number of other remarkable
things that he had seen during his travels. And when he went down, as
he frequently did, and sat in the wine shop at Nullepart, everybody
treated him with deference and distinction, and called him not plain
Lepage, but Master Lepage, and listened respectfully to all that he had
to say.
Then Master Lepage was very well pleased, and he would take his pipe
out of his mouth, and spread out his hands like some celebrated orator,
and give the company the benefit of his views upon any subject--even
those he did not very well understand. For the great thing is to talk,
if you want to make an impression upon society--the sense of that which
you say is quite a secondary consideration. Lepage was a handsome man;
with a bright, grey eye, and a nose like a hawk's beak; and a fine,
grey moustache, the ends of which curled up till they nearly touched
his eyebrows. He held himself very erect, so that even in his blue
blouse and peg-top trousers, with a great, brown umbrella under his
arm, he still looked every inch a soldier.
[Illustration]
But Master Lepage, notwithstanding his superior knowledge of the
world, did not always contrive to please his friends and companions.
For he was--so he said--a philosophic politician; and, like most other
philosophers and politicians, he sometimes became both tedious and
irritable. On such occasions his voice would grow loud, and he would
thump the table with his fist till the plates danced and the glasses
rattled again; and the more the person with whom he was conversing
smiled and apologised, while he differed from him in opinion, the
louder his voice would grow, and the more he would thump the table, and
stamp and violently declare that all who did not agree with him were
idiots and dolts, and traitors.
He had two fixed ideas. He venerated the republican form of government,
and he despised the Prussians. If one of his sons was idle, loitering
over his work or complaining that he had too much to do, Master Lepage
would say to him sternly:--'Sluggard, you are unworthy to be the child
of a glorious republic.'
Or if one of the cows kicked, when Gustavus was milking her, he would
cry out:--'Hey then, thou blue imbecile, recollect that thou art the
cow of a free citizen, and do not behave like a cut-throat Prussian!'
And during the long evenings of all the winters that little Peter could
remember--they were not so very many, though, after all--when the
supper was cleared away and the hearth swept, his father, after putting
on a big pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, and drawing his chair close up
to the table so that the lamp-light might fall full on his book, would
read to himself the history of the famous Roman Republic. And always
once or twice, during the course of the evening, he would lay down the
book and take off his spectacles, and as he rubbed the glasses of them
with his red pocket-handkerchief, would sigh to himself and say quite
gently:--'Ah! but those were times worth living in! They had men worth
looking at in those days.'
The elder of little Peter's brothers was named Antony. He was a smart,
brisk young fellow. He was always in a little bit of a hurry and full
of business. He liked to go down to the town to market. He liked to
drive a sharp bargain, and when he had nothing else to do he would roam
away to the railway station, and hang over the blue wooden railings at
the back of the platform, staring at the crowded passenger or heavily
laden freight trains going through to Paris, or over the frontier into
Switzerland. And if he ever happened to catch sight of any soldiers
on the trains, his eyes grew bright and his face eager, and he would
whistle a stirring march as he walked home through the forest, and
would chatter all the evening about the glorious fun he meant to have
when the time came for him to serve his term in the army. And, at that,
Master Lepage would look up from the pages of his Roman history book,
and nod confidentially to his wife, and say:--
'Eh! our Antony is a fine fellow. He will help some day to thrash those
rascally Prussians.'
But she would answer rather sadly:--
'That will be as the Lord pleases. There is sorrow and sin enough in
the world already, it seems to me, without war to make it greater.'
Then Lepage would shrug his shoulders with an air of slight disgust,
and say:--
'My wife, you are no doubt an excellent woman. But your mind is
narrow. Only a secular education, and, above all, a careful study of
ancient history, can enable us to speak intelligently on these great
questions.'
Then he would wipe his spectacles and return once again to the
campaigns of the Romans.
[Illustration]
Paul, the second boy, was very different to his brother. He was tall
and lanky, with quiet, brown eyes and straight, black hair. He had a
great turn for mechanics, and made little Peter all manner of charming
toys--mill-wheels that turned all splashing and sparkling in the clear
water of the stream; or windmills, to set up in the garden, and scare
the birds away from the fruit with their clatter, and many other pretty
ingenious things. Paul did not talk much about himself; he was a
quiet, silent fellow, but he was always busy with his fingers making
little models of all the machinery he could see or get pictures of,
and, though his father was not quite so partial to him as to Antony, he
would sometimes say:--
'Eh! our Paul, too, will distinguish himself, and bring credit upon his
family and country.'
Now on the particular evening that I was telling you about in the
last chapter, Antony did not come in till quite late. The rest of the
family had had their supper, and Eliza was grumbling to Gustavus as she
rummaged about in the back kitchen.
'Why can't people be punctual?' she said. 'It would vex a saint to be
kept muddling about till just upon bed-time unable to complete the
day's work and wash up the plates and dishes. Those who come in late
should go to bed supperless if I had my way.'
'Umph,' said Gustavus--which was a remarkably safe answer, since it
meant chiefly nothing at all.
Master Lepage sat studying the story of the gallant Horatius, how
he and two others defended the falling bridge over the river Tiber
against all the host of Clusium and the allied cities. Paul, with a
pocket-knife and a number of bits of wood on the table before him, was
making a model of a force-pump. And Susan Lepage sat in the chimney
corner knitting, little Peter on a stool at her feet resting his head
against her knees. He was getting so sleepy that his eyes would shut
though he tried very hard to keep them open. Sometimes his poor, little
head nodded over all on one side; and then he woke up with a great
start, dreaming that he had tumbled out of the old pear-tree in the
garden, bump, on to the ground. And the dream was so vivid that it took
him quite a minute and a half to remember where he was, and to realise
that he was sitting on his own little stool in the kitchen, instead
of lying on the asparagus bed under the pear-tree. But sleepy or not,
Peter was determined not to go to bed till he had heard the news from
Nullepart.
The longest waiting must needs end at last. There was a sound of brisk
footsteps, the door was thrown open, and Antony entered the kitchen,
with the rush and bustle of a healthy, young whirlwind.
Peter was wide awake in a moment. He jumped up and caught hold of the
skirt of his brother's blouse.
'Oh, tell me, tell me,' he cried, 'have they dressed the stable in the
church, and can I go on Sunday and see it?'
Now, it is always a great mistake to rush at people with questions
when they are full of their own affairs; and so little Peter found in
this case. For Antony had some money to pay over to his father, and
a great many things to say on his own account; and then, too, he was
very hungry and wanted his supper, so he pushed poor Peter aside rather
roughly, and told him to get out of the way and mind his own business,
and intimated generally that he was an inconvenient and superfluous
person.
Peter retired to his stool again feeling very small. Between
sleepiness and disappointment he was very much inclined to cry.
Perhaps, indeed, he would have done so, had not Cincinnatus got up and
rubbed gently against his legs, with a high back and a very upstanding
tail, purring very loud, too, and saying as plain as cat-language could
say it:--
'Console yourself. I, Cincinnatus, regret what has occurred. I am your
friend. Confide in me. All will yet go well.'
For Cincinnatus was a cat of feeling, and never lost an opportunity of
making himself agreeable if he could do it without loss of dignity.
However, when Antony had transacted his business, and eaten his
supper, and bragged a little about his own performances of one sort
and another, he became a trifle ashamed of having behaved so roughly
to his little brother. He did not say so, for few people have courage
to make a public confession of their faults. But he described, with
great animation, how the workmen and the good sisters were busy in
the church; how bright everybody said the Virgin's blue mantle would
be, how there was real straw in the stable, how charmingly natural
the cattle and the donkey looked, and how ingeniously a lamp would be
arranged--just like the star, in fact--to shine above the manger. Peter
felt satisfied again. But he was still a little hurt; so he sat quiet
and rubbed Cincinnatus' head in silence, though there were a hundred
and one questions he was longing to ask.
'You will come with us, _mon ami_?' said Susan Lepage, looking across
at her husband, who had just laid down his book, and was wiping his
spectacles with his red handkerchief.
'Your sons will take good care of you,' he answered. 'As for me, I will
keep house.'
'It is the first time we take our little Peter,' she said, and there
was a pleading tone in her voice.
The little boy loved both his father and mother; though perhaps
he loved his mother best, for he was rather afraid of his father
sometimes. But now for some reason he grew very bold. He jumped up and
trotted across the kitchen, and climbed up on his father's knee.
'Oh, it will be so beautiful,' he said--'And we shall all be so
happy--do come, father, do come too.'
Master Lepage looked at him very kindly out of his shrewd, grey eyes,
and gently pinched his cheek.
[Illustration]
'No, no, my son,' he answered, 'go with your mother and your brothers.
These shows are admirable for pious women and for the young. But you
see I am no longer very young, and they no longer greatly interest
me. Those who think deeply upon politics and philosophy outgrow the
satisfaction that others derive from such devout illusions. Every age
has its appropriate pastimes. Go, my children. As for me, I will remain
at home, read the newspaper, and pursue my studies in ancient history.'
'Cannot you think of something better than the doings of those unhappy,
old heathens for one day in the week, _mon ami_?' asked his wife.
Little Peter looked up at her quickly. She had laid aside her knitting,
and coming across the room placed her hand lightly on her husband's
shoulder.
Master Lepage made a grimace, moved a little in his chair, and smiled
good-humouredly at her.
'Ah! my dear, you are the best of women,' he said.
'Then why will you not oblige me?'
Lepage pressed his lips together and put up his eyebrows.
'There are points,' he said, 'on which compliance would be a mere
manifestation of weakness. We will not discuss the situation. About
those small matters upon which we do not, unfortunately, quite agree,
it is wise to maintain silence. There are your three sons--an escort
worthy of a Roman matron! Be contented, then. I remain at home.'
Susan Lepage turned away, and calling to Eliza bade her clear the table.
'Indeed, is it worth while? It will be breakfast time directly,'
replied Eliza, who was still in a bad temper at Antony having been late
for supper.
Susan Lepage looked up at the cuckoo clock in the corner.
'It is late,' she said. 'Come, come, Peter, we will go upstairs; it is
long past your bedtime.'
But the boy did not want to go to bed. He felt a little disturbed and
unhappy, and wanted Lepage more than ever to go with the rest of the
family on Sunday to church at Nullepart. So he rubbed his black head
against his father's shoulder coaxingly:--
'Mother wants you to go, and we all want it. Do please go with us to
the church on Sunday.'
Master Lepage took the child and stood him down on the floor in front
of him.
'Go to bed, when you are told to,' he said. 'Obedience was a virtue
greatly prized by those grand old Romans.'
[Illustration: 'GO TO BED WHEN YOU ARE TOLD.' _Page 34._]
'Out of the mouth of babes--' murmured Susan Lepage, gently.
For some reason this observation appeared to incense her husband.
'Ten thousand plagues!' he burst out vehemently. 'Twenty thousand
cut-throat Prussians! This is a conspiracy. Can I not stay at home when
I please? Can I not sit peaceably in my own kitchen, without cabals and
flagrant acts of insubordination? The rights of a husband and father
are supreme and without limit, I tell you--read the domestic history of
the ancient Romans.'
Susan Lepage waited till her husband had finished speaking; and then
taking poor, frightened, little Peter by the hand, she said calmly:--
'Do not trouble your father any more, my child. He has his reasons for
remaining at home, and doubtless they are good ones.'
Perhaps it was a dream--for Peter was very tired and sleepy, and it
came to him when he was snugly tucked up in his little bed, just before
his mother put out the candle and left him alone with a faint glimmer
of starlight coming in at the uncurtained window at the end of the room.
Perhaps it was a dream; but certainly he seemed to hear Master Lepage's
voice saying softly:--
'Forgive me, my wife. I was over hasty. Your path appears to lie in one
direction and mine in another, at present; but let us both be tolerant.
Who knows but that they may yet meet in the end!'
Then someone stooped down over the little boy's bed and kissed him.
Yes, it must have been his father, for on his forehead he felt the
rough scrape of a thick moustache.