The boy answered by nodding his head.
"Are you French, that you can't talk?" asked the man again.
Sami then said he could talk, but not at all in French, but he was glad
that the tinker spoke German, because otherwise he would not be able to
understand anyone there.
"Whom do you belong to?" asked the man again.
"Nobody," answered Sami.
Then the man wanted to know where he had come from and why he had come
among the French. Sami told him his history, and how he had only come
there again that morning.
"And now don't you know at all what you are going to do, and where you
are going?" asked the man.
Sami said he did not.
"If I knew that you would do something, and not just stand around and
look in the air, I would give you work," continued the man, "but such
stray waifs as you are not willing to do anything."
Meanwhile a woman had come from the wagon. She had heard her husband's
last words.
"Take him," she said. "What work is there for him? He might run errands;
all boys can do that. I never get through with the running about and the
four bawlers, and the cooking besides; take him!"
"Well, stay here," said the man; "you can carry the pan back; it is very
good that you know the way."
Sami had suddenly found a place; he did not himself know how, but he was
very glad about it.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56