Marshall Saunders

“ I rejoined, smiling.
"Nothing is better than being an American."
"You are patriotic," I observed.
"If your ancestors fought with Indians, and English and rebels, and if you expect to die for your country, you ought to be patriotic." ”

“ The French officers and their wives and a number of English residents surrounded the arbour.
"Ah, the delicious cakes! But they are not babas and savarins and tartelettes! They must be American! What do you call this kind? Doughnuts! How peculiar! How effective the arrangement of the bunting, and how many flags—but all of his own country!"
Mrs. Greyshield listened carelessly to the comments. "Oh, yes, he is hopelessly provincial. [pg 26] I shall never teach him to be cosmopolitan. What do you think of such narrowness, princess?" ”

“ I ain't fit to die," cried old George, dropping on his knees.
"I quite agree with you," she said, coolly, laying down her pretended revolver, "and I am glad you have some rag of a conscience left. Now tell me who put you up to this. Some woman, I'll warrant you!"
"Yes, missus, it was," he said, shamefacedly, "'twas Polly Jones,—she that you discharged for impudence. She said that she'd get even with you, and if I'd take your watch and chain and diamond ring, and some of your silver, that we'd go to Boston, and she'd—she'd—"
"Well," said grandmother, tranquilly, "she would do what?" ”

“ Here the singer's voice broke down, and I peered curiously around my corner of the wall. He was pacing to and fro on the river-bank—a weary-faced lad with pale cheeks and drooping shoulders. Beyond him a fat French footman lay asleep on the grass, one hand loosely clutching a novel. An elderly goat, grazing nearer and nearer the man, kept a wary eye on the book, and finally seizing it, devoured it leaf by leaf. ”

“ Rover knew this cry, and springing up would rush toward the wall, barking angrily, and frightening the cats away, though he never could have seen them well enough to catch them.
Jim detested not cats alone, but every strange [pg 52] face, every strange noise, and every strange creature,—boys most of all. If one of them came into the garden he would run to his kennel in a great fright. Now this dislike of Jim's for strange noises saved some of my grandmother's property, and also two people who might otherwise have gone completely to the bad. ”

“ And as for Miss Polly, send her home the instant you set foot outside there, and tell her from me that if she doesn't come to see me to-morrow afternoon she may expect to have [pg 58] the town's officers after her as an accomplice in a burglary. Now be off, or that crow will alarm the household. Not by the door, old George, that's the way honest people go out. Oh, George, George, that a carrion crow should be more faithful to me than you!"
My grandmother lay for some time wide-awake, and I could hear the bed shaking with her suppressed laughter. ”

“ Here, some of you fellows take the whip from her!" cried the boys, dancing like wild Indians around my grandmother.
"Cowards!" she said; "if you must fight, why don't you attack something your own size?"
The boys slunk away, and she picked up the crow. One of its wings was broken, and its body was badly bruised. She wrapped the poor bleeding thing in our lap-robe, and told George to drive home.
"Another pet, grandmother?" I asked. ”

“ Polly Jones is going to stay with me."
Polly stayed with us, and worked hard for a month.
"You are a wicked girl," said my grandmother to her, "and you want discipline. You have been idle, and idleness is the cause of half the mischief in the world. But I will cure you."
Polly took her lesson very meekly, and when the other maids came home, grandmother took her on a trip to Boston. ”

“ There he found a fine porcelain bath, that my grandmother had bought for him. It was full of warm water, and he stepped into it, flapped his wing with pleasure, and threw the water over his body.
"He is coming on!" cried my grandmother; "he will be the joy of my life yet."
[pg 47] "What about Second Cousin George?" I asked.
Second Cousin George—we had to call him that to distinguish him from old George, the coachman—was a relative that lived with us. He was old, cranky, poor, and a little weak-minded, and if it had not been for my grandmother he would have been obliged to go to an almshouse. ”

“ Would that another stranger could chance along, to whom the boy might unburden his heart,—his noble heart, filled not only with dreams of military glory, but of plans for the protection of the weak and helpless among his countrymen! ”

“ I want America, and it seems to me all these priests and soldiers and citizens are acting. I can't think they were born speaking French."
However, it was only at rare intervals that he complained. Away in America he had a father who had set the high standard of duty before him,—a father who would not encourage him to flag.
On the Fourth of July, Mrs. Greyshield was giving a reception—not on account of the day, for she had not a spark of patriotism, but because she was shortly to leave Orléans for the [pg 25] seashore. ”

“ The old woman turned her brown, leathery face toward the blue waters of the Loire. "Mademoiselle, do many French go to America for the accent?"
"No; they have too much sense!"
"It is droll," she went on, "how the families come here. The gentlemen wander to and fro, the ladies occupy themselves with their toilettes. Then they travel to other countries. They are [pg 18] like the leaves on that current. They wander they know not whither. I am only a peasant, yet I can think, and is not one language good enough to ask for bread and soup?" ”

“ About midnight, one dark November night, my grandmother and I were sleeping quietly,—she in her big bed, and I in my little one beside her. The room was a very large one, and our beds were opposite a French window, which stood partly open, for my grandmother liked to have plenty of fresh air at night. ”

“ There she got a policeman to take them about and show them how some of the wicked people of the city lived. Among other places visited was a prison, [pg 60] and when Polly saw young women like herself behind the bars, she broke down and begged grandmother to take her home. And that reformed Polly effectually.
As for old George, after that one miserable night in the stable, and his utter contrition in the morning, he lived only for grandmother, and died looking lovingly in her face.
Jim the crow ruled the house as well as the garden after his exploit in waking grandmother that eventful night. ”

“ Then she took the string off his neck and put it in her pocket. "Crows can feel pain just as men do, Second Cousin George," she said, and walked away.
[pg 49] Second Cousin George never molested the crow again.
After a few weeks the crow became very tame, and took possession of the garden. He dug worms from our choicest flower-beds, nipped off the tops of growing plants, and did them far more damage than Rover the dog. But my grandmother would not have him checked in anything.
"Poor creature!" she said, sympathetically, "he can never fly again; let him get what pleasure he can out of life." ”

“ A week later a telegram from the princess summoned me to Orléans. To my surprise, she met me on the staircase of Mrs. Greyshield's house.
"You are right!" she whispered. "Mrs. Greyshield is to lose her boy!"
My first feeling was one of anger. "Do not speak of such a thing!" I said, harshly.
"Come and see," and she led the way to a room where the weary-faced lad lay on a huge, [pg 32] canopied bed, a nursing sister on either side of him.
"The doctors are in consultation below," she murmured; "but there is no hope."
"Where is his mother?"
"In her room. She sees no one. ”

“ You have been talking to the American boy."
"Oui, madame."
"It is very sad," she continued, in the excellent French spoken by the peasants of the Loiret department. "He comes by the river and declaims. He speaks of Linkum and Wash'ton. I watch from my cottage, for my [pg 17] daughter Mathilde is housemaid at Madame Greyshield's, and I hear her talk. Monsieur le colonel Greyshield is a grand officer in America; but his wife, she is proud. She brings her children to France to study. She leaves the poor man lonely. This boy is most heartbroke. ”

“ You will be a better soldier some day for having had a time of trial and endurance."
"I know it," he said, under his breath. "But sometimes I think I must break loose, especially at night, when the bugles blow."
I knew what he meant. At eight o'clock every evening, from the various barracks in Orléans, the sweet, piercing notes of bugle answering bugle could be heard ”

“ Grandmother and the Crow 41
PAGE
"'Mademoiselle, you are an American?'" (Courtesy of the Youth's Companion) Frontispiece
"She went on gathering her sticks" 18
"'I am from California'" 21
"'You, too, love your country!'" 27
"'There is no hope'" 32
"He tried to sing with them" 36
"I saw second cousin George following him" (Courtesy of the Youth's Companion) 45
"He went up softly behind him" (Courtesy of the Youth's Companion) 50
"Rover knew this cry" (Courtesy of the Youth's Companion) 51
"'I ain't fit to die,' cried old George" 55
FOR HIS COUNTRY FOR HIS COUNTRY.
"My country! ”

“ The scene of this story is laid in the Puritan settlement at Charlestown. The little girl heroine adds another to the list of favorites so well known to the young people.
A Little Puritan Bound Girl.
A story of Boston in Puritan days, which is of great interest to youthful readers. ”