"He has not any body to play with," said Rollo to Jennie. "I have a great mind to go down and play with him while uncle George is getting ready."
"Very well," said Mr. George; "you can go. I shall not be ready for nearly half an hour. We do not wish to get to the Garden of Plants before twelve o'clock."
Rollo hesitated a little about going down, and while he was hesitating the boy rose from his seat and came toward the hotel. He entered under the archway, and presently Rollo heard him coming up the staircase. He then determined to hesitate no longer; so he went out into the passage way to see him.
The boy had reached the top of the staircase when Rollo went out, and was just then coming along the hall. He looked at Rollo with a smile as he came toward him, and this encouraged Rollo to speak to him.
"Can't you find any one to play with you?" said Rollo.
The boy shook his head, but did not speak.
He meant by this that he did not understand what Rollo said; but Rollo thought he meant that he could not find any one to play with him.
"I will play with you," said Rollo; and as he spoke he held out his hands, with the wrists together and the palms open between them, in a manner customary with boys for catching a ball.
The boy understood the sign, though he did not understand the words. He tossed the ball to Rollo, and Rollo caught it. Rollo then tossed it back again. Presently Rollo made signs to the boy to sit down upon the floor at one end of the hall, while he sat down at the other, explaining his wishes also at the same time in words. The boy talked too, in reply to Rollo, accompanying what he said with signs and gestures. They got along thus together in their play very well, each one imagining that he helped to convey his meaning to the other by what he said, while, in fact, neither understood a word that was spoken by the other, and so took notice of nothing but the signs.
Rollo listened attentively once or twice to short replies that his new friend made to him, in order to see if he could not distinguish some words in it that he could understand; but he could not; and he finally concluded that it must be some other language than French that the boy was speaking. He was sorry for this; for he could understand short sentences in French pretty well, and could speak short sentences himself in reply. When, however, he tried to speak to the boy in French, he observed that he did not appear to understand him any better than when he spoke in English. This confirmed him in the opinion that the boy must belong to some other nation.
After playing together for some time with the ball, the two boys began to feel quite acquainted with each other. Rollo wished very much to find out his new companion's name; so he asked him, in English,-
"What is your name?"
The boy smiled, and throwing the ball across again to Rollo as he spoke, said something in reply; but it was a great deal too much to be his name. What he said was, when interpreted into English, "My father bought this ball for me, and gave two francs for it."
Then Rollo thought he would try French; so he translated his question, and asked it in French.
"And I am going to carry it with me to Switzerland and Italy," said the boy, speaking still in the unknown tongue.
"That can't be your name, either," said Rollo, "I am very sure."
Then, after a moment's pause, he added, in an eager voice and manner, as if a new idea had suddenly struck him,-
"We are going to the Garden of Plants-uncle George, and Jennie, and I; wouldn't you like to go, too?"
The boy smiled, and held out his hands for Rollo to roll the ball to him, saying something at the same time which to Rollo seemed totally unmeaning.
"He does not understand me, I suppose; but I know how I can explain it to him."
So he rose from the floor, and, by means of a great deal of earnest gesticulation and beckoning, he induced the boy to get up too, and follow him. Rollo led the way into his uncle's chamber. The boy seemed pleased, though a little timid, in going in.
"Uncle George," said Rollo, "here is a boy that cannot talk. Are you willing that I should invite him to go with us to the Garden of Plants?"
"Yes," said Mr. George; "though I don't see how you are going to do it."
Rollo led the boy to the window, and pointed to the carriage, which stood down before the door below. Then he opened a map of Paris which lay upon the table, and found the Garden of Plants laid down upon it, and showed it to the boy. Then he pointed to his uncle George, to Jennie, and to himself, and then to the carriage. Then he made a motion with his hand to denote going. By these gesticulations he conveyed the idea quite distinctly to his new acquaintance that they were all going to the Garden of Plants. He then finally pointed to the boy himself, and also to the carriage, and looked at him with an inquiring look, which he meant as an invitation to the boy to accompany them. The boy paid close attention to all these signs; and when Rollo had finished, instead of either nodding or shaking his head, in token of his accepting or declining the invitation, as Rollo expected he would have done, he took up the map, and, making certain mysterious gestures, which Rollo could not comprehend, he walked off rapidly out of the room.
Rollo looked at his uncle George with an expression of great astonishment on his countenance.
"What does that mean?" said he.
"Perhaps he has gone to ask his father or his mother," suggested Mr. George.
"He has," exclaimed Rollo, "he has; that's it, I'm sure."
So Rollo went out immediately into the hall to wait till the boy came back.
In a few minutes a door opened, which led into a suite of apartments in the rear of the hotel, and the boy, with the map in his hand, came into the hall, nodding his head, and looking very much pleased; talking all the time, moreover, in a very voluble but perfectly unintelligible manner. A moment after he came the door opened again, and a very respectably dressed man, of middle age, came into the hall. The boy pointed to Rollo, and said something to this man.
"Are you going to the Garden of Plants?" said the man to Rollo, speaking in English, though with a very decidedly foreign accent.
"Yes, sir," said Rollo.
"And did you invite Carlos to go with you?"
"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "only I did not know that his name was Carlos. He told me something very different from that. What language is it that he talks? Is it French?"
"No," replied the man, "it is Spanish. He is a Spanish boy. He cannot understand a word of French or English. But he may go with you to the Garden of Plants."
"Are you his father, sir?" asked Rollo.
"No," replied the man, "I am his father's courier."[E]
[E] A courier is a traveling servant. A good courier understands all the principal languages of Europe, and is acquainted with all the routes and modes of travelling. He takes all the care of the party that employs him; makes bargains for them; finds out good hotels for them to go to; pays the bills; obtains all necessary information; and does every thing for them, in fact, which is required in making the tour of Europe.
So saying, the man passed on, leaving Rollo and Carlos together.
"Come, Carlos," said Rollo, "let us go into uncle George's room, and see if he is not ready to go."
Rollo beckoned as he spoke, and Carlos, understanding his action, though not his words, immediately followed him. In fact, during all his subsequent intercourse with Carlos, Rollo continued to talk to him just as if he could understand, and Carlos talked also in reply.
It is true, that, if Rollo had been asked whether he supposed that Carlos understood what he said, he would have answered no; and yet he continually forgot to act upon this belief, but talked on, under the influence of a sort of instinctive feeling that good plain English, such as he took care to speak, could not fail to convey ideas to any boy that heard it. Under the influence of a similar feeling, Carlos talked Spanish to Rollo, each imagining that the other understood him, at least in some degree, while, in fact, neither understood any thing but the signs and gestures which accompanied the language.