"Yes, Rosy. There is a pretty little robin; let us go round the other
side and see if we can make him come out with these crumbs which I have
brought with me."
So they went softly to the gate, and were just going in, when papa
said,--
"Stop, Rosy; look what that man has got in his hand."
Then she looked, and saw a man with a very long gun and two dogs.
"What is he going to do, papa?" asked the little girl, drawing back;
"will he shoot us if we go in?"
"O, no, Rosy; don't be afraid. It is the robin that he wants to shoot
and not us. So now you see how it is that the dicky-birds don't sing
much at Cannes. It is because they shoot so many of them."
Poor little Rosy! She loved so much to watch the little birds and hear
them sing! And when she thought of this dear robin being shot quite
dead, and that perhaps there was a nest somewhere with little ones who
would have no mamma, she began to cry, and to call the man "a cruel
fellow."
She was not much comforted by being told that such little birds were
eaten there; so that if the man could shoot one, he would get some money
for it which might buy bread for his little ones. But she was rather
glad to hear that the little robins must be able by that time of year to
take care of themselves, and had left the nest some time; and much more
pleased, when, soon after, she saw the dear robin fly right away, so
that the man with the gun was not likely to shoot that one at any rate.
Then papa said, "I shouldn't wonder if mamma would like to go out this
morning. Shall we go back and see?"
[Illustration: "Rosy was very much pleased when soon after she saw the
robin fly right away."]
Rosy thought that would be very nice; and then her papa lifted up his
little girl, and showed her all the beautiful hills that were behind
them. There were some that had peaked tops, and some rather roundish;
and just in one place she could see some hills a very long way off, that
seemed to climb right up into the sky and were all white on the top. He
told her that those hills were called mountains, because they were so
very high,--a great deal too high for Rosy to walk up, and that the
white stuff which she saw was snow.
"We don't have snow when it is warm in England, Rosy, do we?" said
papa, "nor yet here, but up there, you see, it is so cold that the snow
never melts. Those are called 'the snow Alps.'"
Rosy had nearly forgotten the poor birds now, because there were so many
other things to think about. She saw some poppies a little way off, and
then some blue flowers; and they were so pretty that she was quite
obliged to stop a good many times to pick some for dear mamma. The wind
was very high too, and it blew little Rosy's hat right off, so that papa
and she had both to run after it.
Mamma was ready for a walk when they got in, but she staid to put
Rosy's flowers in water; and they looked very gay and pretty. Nurse and
every one admired them; and Rosy said that she was not a bit tired, and
was quite sure that she could go for another long, long walk.
But papa said that though Rosy might be a little horse, her mamma was
not, and that it was a long way to the town and to the shops where she
wanted to go; so he would go and get a carriage for them.
Now, though Rosy certainly was very tired of trains, she found a basket
pony-carriage a very different thing, and enjoyed her ride so much that
she was obliged to change pretty often from her mamma's lap to her
papa's and back again, just because she was too happy to sit still.
The ponies went along merrily too, as if they were nearly as happy. They
had bells on their necks which jingled delightfully, and every now and
then they met a carriage, or even a cart, the horses of which had bells
too. So they had plenty of music.
They went up one hill and down another, and the ponies ran so fast, and
turned round the corners of the roads so quickly, that sometimes mamma
was afraid that the carriage would be upset, and that they would all be
"tipped out in a heap." Rosy thought it would be good fun if they were.
She often rolled about herself, like a little ball, without hurting
herself; and she thought that papa and mamma would only get a little
dusty, and that it would be a nice little job for her to brush the dust
off when she got home.
Just then a number of boys and girls came along the road to meet them,
and Rosy saw that all the little ones wore caps, not hats or bonnets.
There was one baby with large black eyes, whom she would have liked to
kiss and hug. It was so fat and pretty. But it was dressed in a way that
she had never seen any baby dressed before, for its feet and legs were
put into a sort of large bag, so that it could not kick like other
children; and Rosy wondered how it could laugh so merrily.
When the carriage came near this little party the man did not hold the
reins of his horses tight as an English coachman would have done. He
only screamed out to the children, "Gare! gare!" which Rosy's papa told
her meant "Get out of the way."
And when they were all past there came next a great wagon, piled up with
the trunks of trees. The horses which drew this had no bells; but they
had a funny sort of post sticking up high between their ears, with lots
of things hanging on to it. They had also three pink tassels hanging on
their faces, one in front and one on each side. These tassels shook as
they went along, and looked so pretty that Rosy thought to herself that
if ever she had a toy horse again she would ask nurse to make some
little tassels for it just like them. Her papa had told her, too, that
they were to keep off the flies, which teased the poor horses very often
dreadfully. And of course Rosy would not like her horse to be teased.
But the carriage went on while she was thinking this; and soon they saw
four old women coming along the road with large baskets, full of some
green stuff, on their heads. The little girl did not say anything as
they went by, but she looked very particularly to see how they were
dressed.
Now I must tell you why she did this.
In the first place, then, she had never seen any old women a bit like
them before.
They walked all in a row with their baskets on their heads, and with
their hands stuck into their sides, and they talked very fast as they
came along. On their heads they wore very, very large hats, with small
crowns. Rosy had never seen such hats before, and she heard her mamma
say that she had never seen them either. Under these great hats they had
nice white caps, with colored handkerchiefs over them, which hung down
behind. They had, besides, other colored handkerchiefs over their
shoulders, and two of them had red gowns.
Now Rosy had had a present given her in Paris. It was a piece of French
money, worth ten English pennies; and with this money she had bought ten
Dutch dolls, which nursey was going to dress for her. At first she
meant them to make an English school; but now that she had seen so many
funny people she thought she would like her dolls to be dressed like the
people in Cannes, because then they would just show her dear grandmamma
how very nice they looked, and how very different to English people.
She was very quiet for a little while, because she was making this grand
plan; but they soon turned out of the narrow street, and all at once she
saw the sea again.
They had come now to what was called the "port," and there were all the
great ships which had come home lately, and were waiting to go out
again,--one, two, three, four, five, six, all in a row, quite quiet, and
"taking their naps," as Rosy's papa said, "after all their hard work."
He lifted Rosy out first, and said that they would go and look at them,
while mamma went into the shops.
Rosy was not quite sure whether she was pleased at that, because
sometimes her mamma bought her very nice things, such as toys, or
sugar-plums, or cakes, when she took her out shopping. But they soon
found plenty to look at, and some funny men with blue coats and cocked
hats amused the little girl very much. Her papa wondered why she looked
at them so often; but then he did not know Rosy's grand scheme, and how
she was thinking of asking nurse to dress one doll just like them. She
kept this little plan quite a secret till she got back to her nurse.
It was half the fun to have a secret.
[Illustration]