NOBODY'S BOY (Sans Famille) - Hector Malot

[Chap XIX - XXI]

CHAPTER XIX

DISASTER

Vitalis had to be buried the next day, and M. Acquin promised to take me

to the funeral. But the next day I could not rise from my bed, for in

the night I was taken very ill. My chest seemed to burn like poor little

Pretty-Heart's after he had spent the night in the tree. The doctor was

called in. I had pneumonia. The doctor wanted me sent to the hospital,

but the family would not hear of it. It was during this illness that I

learned to appreciate Etiennette's goodness. She devoted herself to

nursing me. How good and kind she was during that terrible sickness.

When she was obliged to leave me to attend to her household duties, Lise

took her place, and many times in my delirium I saw little Lise sitting

at the foot of my bed with her big eyes fixed on me anxiously. In my

delirium I thought that she was my guardian angel, and I would speak to

her and tell her of all my hopes and desires. It was from this time that

I began to consider her as something ideal, as a different being from

the other people I met. It seemed surprising that she could live in our

life; in my boyish imagination I could picture her flying away with big

white wings to a more beautiful world.

I was ill for a very long time. At night, when I was almost

suffocating, I had to have some one to sit up with me; then Alexix and

Benny would take turns. At last I was convalescent, and then it was Lise

who replaced Etiennette and walked with me down by the river. Of course

during these walks she could not talk, but strange to say we had no need

of words. We seemed to understand each other so well without talking.

Then came the day when I was strong enough to work with the others in

the garden. I had been impatient to commence, for I wanted to do

something for my kind friends who had done so much for me.

As I was still weak, the task that was given to me was in proportion to

my strength. Every morning after the frost had passed, I had to lift the

glass frames and at night, before it got chilly, I had to close them

again. During the day I had to shade the wall flowers with straw

coverings to protect them from the sun. This was not difficult to do,

but it took all my time, for I had several hundred glasses to move twice

daily.

Days and months passed. I was very happy. Sometimes I thought that I was

too happy, it could not last. M. Acquin was considered one of the

cleverest florists round about Paris. After the wall flower season was

over other flowers replaced them.

For many weeks we had been working very hard, as the season promised to