A Walk and a Drive. — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A Walk and a Drive.
John Stuart Mill · en
Rosy did not know what a dairy meant; but she supposed that it was
something curious, and tripped merrily along, wondering what she should
see, till they came to a room which had a floor made of red tiles, on
which stood at least ten or twelve large open bowls full of new milk.
Now Rosy happened to be very fond of milk; and as she was just then
quite ready for her breakfast, she was very pleased to have her mug
filled,--the mug which she had brought on purpose, as nurse told
her,--and then take a good drink.
"Ah, nurse, how good it is!" she cried; "but what is all this sticking
to my lips? It is not white like our milk. See, there is something on
the top of it!" and she held out her mug to show her.
"Ah, that's cream, good cream. We did not get milk like this in Paris,"
said nurse; "and I'm sure we don't in London. There's no water here, is
there, madame?"
But madame did not understand English; so nurse was obliged, by looking
very pleased, to make her see that she thought her milk very good.
"But it's very bad of the other people to put water in my milk," said
Rosy, frowning. "I shall ask my papa to scold them when we go home; and
I shall take a great mugful of this nice milk to show my grandmamma."
"Well, now say good by prettily in French, as your papa teaches you,"
said nurse, "and then we'll go home, and I dare say we shall find some
more milk there."
"Adieu, madame," said the little girl, and off she trotted again, as
ready to go as she had been to come.
They say "madame" to every one in France, you know, and not to rich
ladies only.
Now there are beautiful hills all round the back of Cannes, and a little
way up one of these was the house where Rosy was going to live. She did
so like running up and down hills! and there were two or three little
ones between the farm and this house, which was called a villa.
When she got on to the top of one, she cried out,--
"Ah, there's the sea, I do declare! and there's a boat on it with a
white sail! Shall we go in a boat some day?"
"I don't know," said nurse, "you must ask your mamma; but you don't want
to be sick, do you?"
"I won't be sick," cried the little girl. "Rosy is never sick in a
beau'ful boat like that. I'll ask my mamma," and she bustled on.
"Stay, stay!" cried nurse, "you're going too far, my pet; this is the
way; look, who stands up there?"
Rosy looked up, and there was the villa with its green blinds high up
over her head; and some one stood outside the door calling her by name.
O, what a number of steps there were for those little legs to climb
before she reached her papa!
They went up by the side of a garden, which was itself like a lot of
wide steps, and on each step there was a row of vines, not trained
against a wall as we train our vines in England, but growing on the
ground like bean plants.