Paula the Waldensian - Eva Lecomte

advantage of considerable schooling. She was every inch "the fine lady,"
with her firm step and resolute voice and her brilliant black eyes.
Nevertheless, we all loved her dearly, for there was a simple loving heart
hidden away beneath all her magnificence.
Justina, who had been her faithful servant for forty years, never tired of
singing the praises of her "Madame." If during our short stay at "Las Lilas"
we showed ourselves unduly boisterous, or when we disobeyed orders,
Justina would say to us after we had been properly reprimanded, "You never,
never will be like your grandmother!"
Grandfather always met us at the little railway station. On our arrival he
embraced everybody, including our father whom he would kiss on both
cheeks as if he had been a child. Catalina would first be hoisted up into the
great carriage and we would follow one after the other. Louis took unto
himself the honor of holding the reins, and after everybody was well-seated,
except my father and grandfather who marched on ahead of the horses, the
slow procession to the house would begin.
In half-an-hour we could see the great house where grandma and Justina,
decked out in their Sunday gowns, awaited our arrival. There, after various
comments on our growths and states of health, Catalina would be conducted
by her grandmother to her room to rest after the tiresome journey, while
Justina would carry off Teresa to the kitchen, and the rest of us would hurry
to the orchard where grandfather with a vigorous hand would shake down the
apples and pears into our outstretched aprons. Those were ecstatic moments
when we could bury our teeth in the newly-fallen fruit. Soon father would
cry, "That's enough! That's enough! There'll be nothing left for anybody
else!" But grandfather continuing to shake down more fruit would answer
with his great gruff voice, "First come, first served! Besides, look over there
to the right! There are thousands of apples that we haven't even touched!"
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