Poor Didier! I remember so well how he looked--as if he could not understand me--like our great sheep-dog, that would stare up with his soft sad eyes if ever I spoke roughly to him! "That day was the beginning of much trouble for me.

I got in the way of going to Chalet whenever I could get leave, to see my new friends, who were always full of some plan to amuse themselves and me, and my home where I had been so happy I seemed no longer to care for.

I must have grieved them all, but I thought not of it--my head was quite turned.
"One day I was setting off for Chalet to spend the afternoon, when, just as I was leaving, the bon papa stopped me.
"'Here, my child,' he said, holding out to me an apple; 'this is the first of this season's on thy pommier.

I gathered it this morning--see, it is quite ripe--it was on the sunny side.

Take it; thou mayest, perhaps, feel tired on the way.' "I took it carelessly.
"'Thanks, bon papa,' I said, as I put it in my pocket.