"
"Girls spoken to them, indeed! I tell you, Gobelin, in the times now
coming, any girl will be ready enough to speak to a young man that has
a house over his head, and a five-franc piece in his pocket. No,
neighbour Gobelin; I gave my boys a good trade, and desired them to
stick to it; they have chosen instead to go for soldiers, and for
soldiers they may go. They don't come into my smithy again, that's all."
"You don't mean you won't speak to the lads, and after their fighting
so bravely and all!" said Paul Rouel, in a voice of horror.
"I didn't say I wouldn't speak to them, Rouel," said the father, "I am
as fond of my sons as another man; and as they were resolved to disobey
my commands, and to go fighting, why I'll not say but I'm glad they
didn't disgrace themselves. I'd have been sorry to hear that they'd run
away, or been the last to face the enemy; but they had no right to go,
when there was work for them to do at home; they are welcome now to come
and take the best I can give them, till their new trade calls them away
again, and then they'll be welcome to go soldiering again; not a hammer
shall they raise on my anvil, not a blast shall they blow in my smithy,
not an ounce of iron shall they turn in my furnace.
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