What a pity you know no French!'
'I do know a lot of French,' whispered Robert, indignantly; 'but
it's all about the pencil of the gardener's son and the penknife of
the baker's niece--nothing that anyone ever wants to say.'
'If _I_ speak,' the bird whispered, 'he'll think HE'S mad, too.'
'Tell me what to say.'
'Say "C'est vrai, monsieur. Venez donc voir,"' said the Phoenix;
and then Robert earned the undying respect of everybody by suddenly
saying, very loudly and distinctly--
'Say vray, mossoo; venny dong vwaw.'
The priest was disappointed when he found that Robert's French
began and ended with these useful words; but, at any rate, he saw
that if the lady was mad she was not the only one, and he put on a
big beavery hat, and got a candle and matches and a spade, and they
all went up the hill to the wayside shrine of St John of Luz.
'Now,' said Robert, 'I will go first and show you where it is.'
So they prised the stone up with a corner of the spade, and Robert
did go first, and they all followed and found the golden treasure
exactly as they had left it. And every one was flushed with the
joy of performing such a wonderfully kind action.
Then the lady and the priest clasped hands and wept for joy, as
French people do, and knelt down and touched the money, and talked
very fast and both together, and the lady embraced all the children
three times each, and called them 'little garden angels,' and then
she and the priest shook each other by both hands again, and
talked, and talked, and talked, faster and more Frenchy than you
would have believed possible.
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