It is a small hope , but I do not enlarge my fear by a sad face . I yet work and save a little purse , so that I may not be a heaviness to those who have the charity to finish me if I fall back and yet die . ' I would not hear of that , and told him he looked as well and happy as if he had found a fortune . He laughed , and answered with his fine bow , ' I have . Behold , you come to make the fête for me . I find also here my friends Joseph and Napoleon . Poor as mouses of the church , as you say , but brave boys , and we work together with much gaiety . ' When I asked if he had leisure to be my guide about Paris , for my time was short and I wanted to see everything ; he pranced , and told me he had promised himself a holiday , and had planned many excursions the most wonderful , charming , and gay . Then , having settled me at Madame 's , he went blithely away to what I afterwards discovered were very poor lodgings , across the river . Next day began the pleasantest fortnight in all my year of travel . Laddie appeared early , elegant to behold , in a new hat and buff gloves , and was immensely amused because the servant informed me that my big son had arrived . I believe the first thing a woman does in Paris is to buy a new bonnet . I did , or rather stood by and let ` my son ' do it in the best of French , only whispering when he proposed gorgeous chapeaus full of flowers and feathers , that I could not afford it . ` Ah ! we must make our economies , must we ? See , then , this modest , pearl-colored one , with the crape rose . Yes , we will have that , and be most elegant for the Sunday promenade . ' I fear I should have bought a pea-green hat with a yellow plume if he had urged it , so wheedlesome and droll were his ways and words . His good taste saved me , however , and the modest one was sent home for the morrow , when we were to meet Joseph and Napoleon and go to the concert in the Tuileries garden . Then we set off on our day of sight-seeing , and Laddie proved himself an excellent guide .
We had a charming trip about the enchanted city , a gay lunch at a café , and a XXXXX brief glimpse of the Louvre .
French Joseph Laddie crape day fall first fête mouses year