Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/132

106 un mouton pour mon diner, dont on fait une lanterne," pointing to the lean carcass of a sheep hanging up in the kitchen, in which the French servants had placed a candle which shone through. "But I know," he continued, "you are dying to see the baby;" and the sisters went with him to Madame Montholon's apartment to see her six-weeks-old girl.

Napoleon took his little god-daughter in his arms.

"Oh, you will let it fall!" cried Betsy as he dandled it clumsily.

"No, no! See, it will let me do anything with it;" and he pinched little Lili's nose and chin until she cried.

"You do not know how to hold a baby," protested Betsy.

"But I ought to know," responded Napoleon with a twinkle of amusement in his eye. "Often and often I have nursed the King of Rome when he was younger than Lili."

After leaving the baby and Madame Montholon, the little girls went with Napoleon to the garden outside.

"It is not like The Briars," the Emperor said, shaking his head sadly.