NOBODY'S BOY (Sans Famille) - Hector Malot

[Chap XIII - XV]

CHAPTER XIII

WEARY DREARY DAYS

Again I had to tramp behind my master with the harp strapped to my

shoulder, through the rain, the sun, the dust, and the mud. I had to

play the fool and laugh and cry in order to please the "distinguished

audience."

More than once in our long walks I lagged behind to think of Arthur, his

mother, and the _Swan_. When I was in some dirty village how I would

long for my pretty cabin on the barge. And how rough the sheets were

now. It was terrible to think that I should never again play with

Arthur, and never hear his mother's voice.

Fortunately in my sorrow, which was very deep, I had one consolation;

Vitalis was much kinder, kinder than he had ever been before. His manner

with me had quite changed. I felt that he was more to me than a master

now. Often, if I dared, I would have embraced him, I so needed love. But

I had not the courage, for Vitalis was not a man with whom one dared be

familiar. At first it had been fear that kept me at a distance, but now

it was something vague, which resembled a sentiment of respect.

When I left the village I had looked upon Vitalis the same as the other

men of the poorer class. I was not able to make distinctions, but the

two months that I had lived with Mrs. Milligan had opened my eyes and

developed my intelligence. Looking at my master with more attention, it

seemed to me that in manner and bearing he appeared to be very superior.

His ways were like Mrs. Milligan's ways....

Weeks passed. On our tramps, now, my eyes were always turned in the

direction of the water, not to the hills. I was always hoping that one

day I should see the _Swan_. If I saw a boat in the distance I always

thought that it might be the _Swan_. But it was not.

We passed several days at Lyons, and all my spare time I spent on the

docks, looking up and down the river. I described the beautiful barge to

the fishermen and asked them if they had seen it, but no one had seen

it.

We had to leave Lyons at last and went on to Dijon; then I began to give

up hope of ever seeing Mrs. Milligan again, for at Lyons I had studied

all the maps of France, and I knew that the _Swan_ could not go farther

up the river to reach the Loire. It would branch off at Chalon. We

arrived at Chalon, and we went on again without seeing it. It was the

end of my dream.

To make things worse, the winter was now upon us, and we had to tramp

along wearily in the blinding rain and slush. At night, when we arrived