"Shall you?" said François, laughing. "Are you, too, going to climb up the great ash-tree to hunt tomtits? I shall let you do it, my little fellow! But listen, Madame Blanchet, there is something I want to ask of you, but I do not know whether you will tell it to me." "Let me hear." "Why do they think they hurt my feelings when they call me a waif? Is there any harm in being a waif?" "No; certainly not, my child, since it is no fault of yours." "Whose fault is it?" "It is the fault of the rich people." "The fault of the rich people! What does that mean?" "You are asking a great many questions to-day; I shall answer you by and by." "No, no; right away, Madame Blanchet." "I cannot explain it to you. In the first place, do you know yourself what it is to be a waif?" "Yes; it is being put in a foundling asylum by your father and mother, because they have no money to feed you and bring you up." "Yes, that is it. So you see that there are people so wretched as not to be able to bring up their own children, and that is the fault of the rich who do not help them." "You are right!" answered the waif very thoughtfully. "Yet there are some good rich people, since you are one, Madame Blanchet, and it is only necessary to fall in their way." [Illustration] CHAPTER VI NEVERTHELESS, the waif, who was always musing and trying to find reasons for everything since he had learned to read and had made his first communion, kept pondering over what Catherine had said to Madame Blanchet about him; but it was in vain that he reflected, for he could never understand why, now that he was growing older, he should no longer kiss Madeleine. He was the most innocent boy in the world, and had no suspicion of what boys of his age learn all too quickly in the country. His great simplicity of mind was the result of his singular bringing-up. He had never felt his position as a foundling to be a disgrace, but it had made him very shy; for though he had not taken the title as an insult, he was always surprised to find he possessed a characteristic which made a difference between himself and those with whom he associated. Foundlings are apt to be humbled by their fate, which is generally thrust upon them so harshly that they lose early their self-respect as Christians. They grow up full of hatred toward those who brought them into the world, not to speak of those who helped them to remain in it. It happened, however, that François had fallen into the hands of Zabelle, who loved him and treated him with kindness, and afterward he load met with Madeleine, who was the most charitable and compassionate of women. She had been a good mother to him, and a waif who receives affection is better than other children, just as he is worse when he is abused and degraded.