A WALK AND A DRIVE.
ROSY made such haste to finish her bread and milk, that she was ready togo out before any one else had done breakfast. But her papa was not longbefore he was ready too, and she was soon tripping along by his side.
They went only a little way up the road, and then they came to a field,on one side of which were some high bushes. Rosy knew where to look forbirds, and peeped very anxiously amidst the boughs till she sawsomething hopping. Then she pulled her papa's hand, and let him knowthat she wanted him to stoop down and look too.
He looked, and then whispered,--
"Yes, Rosy. There is a pretty little robin; let us go round the otherside and see if we can make him come out with these crumbs which I havebrought with me."
So they went softly to the gate, and were just going in, when papasaid,--
"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 shootand not us. So now you see how it is that the dicky-birds don't singmuch at Cannes. It is because they shoot so many of them."
Poor little Rosy! She loved so much to watch the little birds and hearthem sing! And when she thought of this dear robin being shot quitedead, and that perhaps there was a nest somewhere with little ones whowould have no mamma, she began to cry, and to call the man "a cruelfellow."
She was not much comforted by being told that such little birds wereeaten there; so that if the man could shoot one, he would get some moneyfor it which might buy bread for his little ones. But she was ratherglad to hear that the little robins must be able by that time of year totake care of themselves, and had left the nest some time; and much morepleased, when, soon after, she saw the dear robin fly right away, sothat 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 thismorning. Shall we go back and see?"
"Rosy was very much pleased when soon after she saw therobin fly right away."]
Rosy thought that would be very nice; and then her papa lifted up hislittle girl, and showed her all the beautiful hills that were behindthem. 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, thatseemed to climb right up into the sky and were all white on the top. Hetold her that those hills were called mountains, because they were sovery high,--a great deal too high for Rosy to walk up, and that thewhite stuff which she saw was snow.
"We don't have snow when it is warm in England, Rosy, do we?" saidpapa, "nor yet here, but up there, you see, it is so cold that the snownever melts. Those are called 'the snow Alps.'"
Rosy had nearly forgotten the poor birds now, because there were so manyother things to think about. She saw some poppies a little way off, andthen some blue flowers; and they were so pretty that she was quiteobliged to stop a good many times to pick some for dear mamma. The windwas very high too, and it blew little Rosy's hat right off, so that papaand she had both to run after it.
Mamma was ready for a walk when they got in, but she staid to putRosy's flowers in water; and they looked very gay and pretty. Nurse andevery one admired them; and Rosy said that she was not a bit tired, andwas quite sure that she could go for another long, long walk.
But papa said that though Rosy might be a little horse, her mamma wasnot, and that it was a long way to the town and to the shops where shewanted to go; so he would go and get a carriage for them.
Now, though Rosy certainly was very tired of trains, she found a basketpony-carriage a very different thing, and enjoyed her ride so much thatshe was obliged to change pretty often from her mamma's lap to herpapa'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. Theyhad bells on their necks which jingled delightfully, and every now andthen they met a carriage, or even a cart, the horses of which had bellstoo. So they had plenty of music.
They went up one hill and down another, and the ponies ran so fast, andturned round the corners of the roads so quickly, that sometimes mammawas 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 hurtingherself; and she thought that papa and mamma would only get a littledusty, and that it would be a nice little job for her to brush the dustoff 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 tokiss and hug. It was so fat and pretty. But it was dressed in a way thatshe had never seen any baby dressed before, for its feet and legs wereput into a sort of large bag, so that it could not kick like otherchildren; and Rosy wondered how it could laugh so merrily.
When the carriage came near this little party the man did not hold thereins of his horses tight as an English coachman would have done. Heonly screamed out to the children, "Gare! gare!" which Rosy's papa toldher meant "Get out of the way."
And when they were all past there came next a great wagon, piled up withthe trunks of trees. The horses which drew this had no bells; but theyhad a funny sort of post sticking up high between their ears, with lotsof things hanging on to it. They had also three pink tassels hanging ontheir faces, one in front and one on each side. These tassels shook asthey went along, and looked so pretty that Rosy thought to herself thatif ever she had a toy horse again she would ask nurse to make somelittle tassels for it just like them. Her papa had told her, too, thatthey were to keep off the flies, which teased the poor horses very oftendreadfully. 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 sawfour old women coming along the road with large baskets, full of somegreen stuff, on their heads. The little girl did not say anything asthey went by, but she looked very particularly to see how they weredressed.
Now I must tell you why she did this.
In the first place, then, she had never seen any old women a bit likethem before.
They walked all in a row with their baskets on their heads, and withtheir hands stuck into their sides, and they talked very fast as theycame along. On their heads they wore very, very large hats, with smallcrowns. Rosy had never seen such hats before, and she heard her mammasay that she had never seen them either. Under these great hats they hadnice white caps, with colored handkerchiefs over them, which hung downbehind. They had, besides, other colored handkerchiefs over theirshoulders, and two of them had red gowns.
Now Rosy had had a present given her in Paris. It was a piece of Frenchmoney, worth ten English pennies; and with this money she had bought tenDutch dolls, which nursey was going to dress for her. At first shemeant them to make an English school; but now that she had seen so manyfunny people she thought she would like her dolls to be dressed like thepeople in Cannes, because then they would just show her dear grandmammahow very nice they looked, and how very different to English people.
She was very quiet for a little while, because she was making this grandplan; but they soon turned out of the narrow street, and all at once shesaw the sea again.
They had come now to what was called the "port," and there were all thegreat ships which had come home lately, and were waiting to go outagain,--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, becausesometimes her mamma bought her very nice things, such as toys, orsugar-plums, or cakes, when she took her out sh
opping. But they soonfound plenty to look at, and some funny men with blue coats and cockedhats amused the little girl very much. Her papa wondered why she lookedat them so often; but then he did not know Rosy's grand scheme, and howshe was thinking of asking nurse to dress one doll just like them. Shekept this little plan quite a secret till she got back to her nurse.
It was half the fun to have a secret.