64 STORIES FROM DAUDET

going down the Rhone in a papal
barge, singing on the way. He was
going to the Neapolitan court with a
band of young nobles whom the city
sent every year to Queen Joan to learn
diplomacy and fine manners.  Tistet
was not nobly born; but the Pope was
determined to reward him for the care
he had taken of the mule, and par-
ticularly for the activity he had shown
on the day of her rescue. How
disappointed the mule was on the
morrow !

‘Ah, the wretch! he suspected
something,’ she thought, shaking her
bells furiously ; ‘but never mind, go
where you will, villain, you will find
that kick when you return... . Pll
keep it for you.’

And she kept her word.

After Tistet’s departure, the Pope’s
mule pursued the even tenor of her
way and resumed her old habits. No
more Quiquets or Béluguets in her
stable. The good old days of the French