Marshall Saunders

“ Is it not better for a few to suffer than for many? Your schools must kill thousands of children. If a few teachers were sacrificed, many boys would be saved for military duty. Otherwise they will waste their strength in this imbecile of a life, or die, as I say.”
“How do you suppose the teachers would feel to be killed off?” asked the sergeant, his broad shoulders shaking with laughter.
Eugene made a compassionate gesture. “It would not be pleasant for them. Perhaps one could alter the punishment to banishment for life.” ”

“ He wouldn’t come near me for a while after the park uniform was changed from gray to blue.”
“He caresses you because you feed him,” said Eugene, with a side glance at the animal, who had stretched himself on his back, and was playfully biting and patting the sergeant’s hand.
“You don’t enter into the animal’s feelings at all,” said the sergeant benevolently. “You don’t think that there is a little heart inside that furry body—that it grew sick and sad when it was shut out from its home.”
“I do not comprehend in the least,” said Eugene in his most grown-up fashion. “A cat cannot suffer.” ”

“ Virtue Ann and Bridget could not detain her. She fairly ran home; and, throwing herself on a sofa, she mourned in silence and alone until her husband came in for his supper. Then she gave him an account of her visit.
The sergeant laughed until he grew purple in the face. “Bess,” he said, “you want an adopted mother yourself. You’re not used to managing children. You mustn’t fly into a temper so quickly.”
“He was so aggravating,” sobbed Mrs. Hardy.
“Of course; but think of the way he’s been brought up. Why, he’s just like a hunted animal now. The weakest thing will turn at the last. ”

“ The sergeant invariably takes him a round of the public buildings and monuments of the city. Eugene’s face flashes as he follows the sergeant’s lead, and reins in his black pony near the colossal statue of Washington on his horse, or gazes at the noble, manly Lincoln standing over the freed slave. ”

“ One day not long ago, when they were standing before this monument, Eugene said, “I may not be a soldier when I am grown up; but if this country should need me, I will serve it till I die.”
“That’s right,” observed the sergeant, “if you are a good honest citizen, respecting yourself and the rights of others, and trying to keep a clear record, you’ll be doing as good service [Pg 226] in the world as if you were running about with a sword or a gun in your hand to pick a quarrel.” ”

“ When Mr. Manning re-entered the room escorting his wife, Eugene’s face brightened somewhat. With a grace and a composure that charmed the lady, he rose and stood aside, while monsieur le curé almost prostrated himself before her. Then he, too, made an inflexion of his slender, supple body, and gazed from under his black, drooping eyelashes at the pretty mother of his desired fiancée.
He had never seen her before, and she had never seen him. “Virgie talks a great deal about you,” she said. “Thank you, no, I will not take a chair. Dinner is just about to be announced. ”

“ I do not care for girls. I like men. May I count you as one of my friends, sir?” and stopping himself quickly by sticking the heels of his shoes in the ground, he made the sergeant a low bow.
“I’m sure I’ll be delighted,” said the sergeant, grinning at him.
“And may I request the honor of your name,” pursued the boy. “My grandfather will ask me”—
“Stephen Hardy, at your service, sir—plain Stephen Hardy, no marshals nor lords, not even a captain in my string—only plain Yankee sailors for grandfathers.”
“Ah, you belong to the bourgeoisie,” said Eugene, “or possibly the peuple. ”

“ I cannot forget my emperor; but General Washington was better. He loved more his fellow-men.”
“Bravo!” said the sergeant; “you’ll make a first-class citizen of the United States yet.”
“Never,” said Eugene abruptly.
The sergeant and his wife looked earnestly at him.
“I shall be a Frenchman always,” said Eugene vehemently. “I may never see my country again; but I love her—I would die for her;” and he grew deathly pale, as he always did when he was much moved.
“That’s right,” said the sergeant. “The world wants more boys like you. Always stand up for your own country, but be charitable to others. ”

“ The sergeant stared after Eugene, and talked aloud to himself, as he had a habit of doing. “I don’t rightly make out that lad yet. We haven’t got any like him in this country. Haughty isn’t the word for him, and selfish doesn’t come anywhere near his looking out for number one; yet there’s something diverting about the little shaver, in spite of it all. He’s old-fashioned, like a child that’s been brought up with elderly people. I’ll look out for him. He’ll be coming here again,” and the sergeant smiled to himself as he went on his rounds through the park. ”

“ When the sergeant went home to his dinner at one o’clock, he told his wife about meeting Eugene.
“I’m glad you sent him to play,” she said. “His nurse has been here, and we were talking about him. It’s a shame to have the child so like an old man.”
“Yes; it is,” said the sergeant absently. “What have you got for dinner, Bess? I’m fearfully hungry, and I smell something good.”
“Steak and onions and apple-pie,” said his wife. “Stephen, I want that boy.”
“You want that boy!” said her husband in a dazed manner. “What do you mean?”
“Just exactly what I say,” she replied with great composure. ”

“ Something told him that Eugene’s scanty savings were heroically devoted to perpetuating the memory of his beloved emperor.
“Are you going to lay those before John Boyle O’Reilly,” he asked.
Eugene bowed gravely.
“Speaking of monuments, there is one I admire,” said the sergeant, jerking a thumb over his shoulder; “and I often think it shows that a woman knows better how to dress a man than a man does.”
“You have reason,” said Eugene courteously; though he did not understand in the least what the sergeant meant, and the sergeant knew he did not. ”

“ The sergeant retained his hold of Eugene, and sat him down on the stone seat. “Boy,” he said firmly, “do you stone cats?”
“Always,” returned Eugene. “The reptiles!”
“Why do you do it?”
“Possibly,” said the lad with slight sarcasm, “you would also stone them if you lived where we do. At night my grandfather retires worn out by his exertions during the day. He sleeps; then he springs from his bed, awakened by a cry for help from a drowning child. It is a cat! He becomes angry; he lifts the window, and throws a morsel of coal at the supposed drowning one. He again retires. He again sleeps. ”

“ They’re a magnificent nation over there; though sometimes they provoke us, and sometimes we provoke them. However, they’ll stand more goading from us than they will from any other people on the face of the earth. Just you make a note of that, my boy. You’ll find it’s true some day, and then you will appreciate them.”
“Possibly,” said Eugene; “in the day that tolerate the republic in France.”
“Queer little lad,” said the sergeant, affectionately laying a hand on Eugene’s smooth head. “You can’t look ahead and see yourself a tolerant man?” ”

“ The sergeant has resigned from the police force, and the city cares for the cats; though every week the sergeant and Eugene ride in, the former on a stately chestnut horse, and the latter on a beautiful pony, to pay a visit to the park, where they are eagerly welcomed by the king and his subjects.
On these weekly visits Eugene often calls on the Mannings, and is rapturously welcomed by Virgie; but whether he goes there or not, he never fails to seek the spot where the bust of John Boyle O’Reilly looks toward the city. He always remains before it for a long time. ”

“ I lived in the country.”
“Then, you mustn’t scold me,” said Virgie gayly. “O Bridget! there is a big, big fly with blue wingses. You stand still like a mousie while I catch it, ’cause if you runned you might starkle it;” and she darted away.
“And is the French boy still making his home with you, sir?” asked Bridget curiously.
“Yes; he is still with us.”
“And he doesn’t hear from his bad old uncle in France, Virtue Ann tells me.”
“No; he hasn’t as yet,” said the sergeant. ”

“ Mrs. Hardy stared at him. She did not in the least understand this sudden jocularity of mood.
The sergeant, nothing daunted by her expression, allowed his spirits to rise higher and higher, and continued,—
“The captain’s worse than the sergeant;
The sergeant’s worse than the corp’ral;
The corp’ral’s worse than the private;
But the major’s the worst of all.”
“Stephen,” said Mrs. Hardy tearfully, “I don’t think it’s kind of you to sing that.” ”

“ He hadn’t much faith in human nature, and he despised women.”
“The great emperor was but a man,” said Eugene stiffly.
“He was concentrated selfishness,” said Mrs. Hardy. “I am selfish, my husband is, everybody is; but Napoleon was worse than we are. But why do you cry?” for the tears were still rolling down Eugene’s cheeks in a slow and sober procession.
He dabbed at his face with his handkerchief. “I will tell you,” he said earnestly. “Since you have been speaking, I have been looking out that window toward the park where your homeless cats live. ”

“ We’re always having to do things in the dark in this life, and then some way or other light shines on us; but Bess”—and he hesitated, and looked at her from under drooping eyelids as shyly as if he were a boy himself. ”

“ It’s too one-sided—too sure for you, too risky for my daughter.”
“Are not American girls equal to French girls who do this?”
“Yes, I daresay; but I prefer an American husband for my child. I know that French people look out for money. You won’t let your army officers marry without getting a certain amount with a wife, I have heard; but somehow or other the thing does not commend itself to me. I don’t believe in marrying for money.”
“But we do not do that,” exclaimed Eugene. “Oh! you are rashly mistaken. A Frenchman does not marry to obtain gold. It is to protect his wife. ”

“ I believe I’ll walk up Boylston Street way with you a bit. Come over some feeding-time to see these creatures. They’re more interesting then. Don’t bring your nurse, though, down here. These cats just hate women.”
“For the same reason that the king does?” asked Eugene.
“Yes; they’ve mostly been turned out-of-doors by women, and they don’t forget it. I’m sorry it’s so, for I am fond of women myself; but animals, and cats especially, don’t forget an injury; that is, the most of them don’t. They’re very like us, some forgive and some don’t; and they’re just as full of contradictions as we are. ”

“ I guess the cat teaches him a good many lessons.”
“The king is a good pussy,” remarked Virgie sagely.
“He is not perfect, but he is about as good as a cat can be,” said her companion.
Virgie stopped to pick up some shining pebbles from the ground, but the sergeant hurried her on. “Make haste, little girl, if you want to come with me. There’s something queer about the king’s actions. See how he is running.”
Virgie trotted along beside him again, and her nurse quickened her footsteps so that she might keep up with the two figures ahead of her. ”

“ You can fool a human being quicker than you can an animal; and an animal won’t lie as often as a human being, though they will do it sometimes. You needn’t try to catch them, little one,” he went on, addressing a child who came suddenly racing down a path; “they won’t let any one but the park police lay a hand on them.”
Every cat had disappeared at the advent of the child, and with a disappointed face she went back the way she had come.
“Would you like to see the cats’ winter bedfellows?” said the sergeant, addressing Eugene. ”

“ The boy fed and caressed them; and then, followed by the pair who were in a state of silent satisfaction, he sat down by his window, and resting his elbows on the window-sill, looked out across the garden into the street. It was very quiet. The Hardys had no near neighbors, and only at rare intervals did anyone pass, yet Eugene was not afraid.
“I am happy—happy,” he murmured, pressing his face against the tortoiseshell fur of one of the cats. “I cannot be lonely unless she stays a long, long time. Probably they are to remain all night. It must be a visit to the aunt. ”

“ I hope, too, that you’ll never be stood up and have an awful moment when you wonder what in the name of common-sense you have done, or your ancestors have done, that you shouldn’t be allowed to live out this life, which is tricky anyway, but should be set up for a plaything, not for butchers, but for decent human beings, that haven’t the faintest bit of spite against you. ”

“ They come mewing and cringing to this park, most of them scared out of their lives, only here and there a bold one.”
“Unfortunates,” said Eugene bitterly, “it would be better for them to die.”
“They think it more fun to live and have a good time. They don’t mind dependence. Bless you, we’ve all got to be looked after. Where would I be if I hadn’t my wife to take care of me? what would she do without me?”
“Have no thought for her,” said Eugene magnificently. “If misfortune befalls you, I shall take her under my protection.”
The sergeant stared hard at the cats, and tried not to smile. ”

“ One does it in France. One sells all things.”
“All right,” said the sergeant philosophically. “Have me sell eggs or anything you like, the money is there, anyway, and the boy is welcome to it. Hello, here he is. Come here, lad, and dash this off to your protector. You are now in America, you start for France in a few hours; you may stay there six weeks, or six months, or six years, or all your life; but unless you hear from us that we have forgotten you or changed our minds, you’re at liberty to come here and live with us at any time. Do you understand that?”
“I do,” said Eugene ”