Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/35

Rh comes ashore?" ventured Jane at last. "Will they put him in a dungeon?"

"Certainly not, my child. He is to live at Longwood, but as the house needs to be put in repair, he will stay for a while with Mr. Porteous."

"When will he come ashore?" asked Betsy timidly. Now that her father had spoken so reassuringly of Napoleon, she was curious to see him, at least from a safe distance.

"He will land to-night, after dark, I imagine, to escape the gaze of the crowd;" and their father, turning from the children, went toward the house.

As he left them, the young people began an animated discussion of Napoleon. They were already getting used to the idea that he was to live on St. Helena and that he was an ordinary human being, not unlike the British officials of high rank sent out by the Crown.

"As he cannot possibly hurt us, why shouldn't we go to the valley to see him land?" asked Betsy.

"Why shouldn't we?" echoed Jane. So it happened, when they had asked their parents, that the older children were permitted to go