much as if he were a relative. But there's something more. They are
continually watching him with anxious eyes. They guard him as if he
weren't able to take care of himself any more than a baby. They don't
let him have half the liberty and fun that ordinary boys have. Lots of
mothers and fathers, who love their children to distraction, aren't half
as fussy and concerned about them as these two people are about a boy
who isn't even a relative. It makes Louis awfully annoyed, for he hates
like anything to be coddled. Once he fell out of an apple-tree and broke
a rib, and they nearly went wild. He had a fever that night and lay in a
sort of stupor. But when he was coming out of it he heard them talking
awfully queerly about him and wringing their hands and whispering that
"he would never, never forgive us if Monsieur Louis were to die."Who "he" was, or why his Aunt Yvonne and his Uncle Jean (as he calls
them) should allude to him as "Monsieur Louis," was something Louis
couldn't understand. And somehow, when he was better, he didn't like to
ask.They have taught him French, and with them he always has to speak that
language. But he doesn't like it, because he says he's an American
citizen and would rather talk "United States" than anything else. He's
awfully patriotic and proud of this country, and he can't understand why
this should bother Mr. and Miss Meadows. But it somehow does. He's sure
of it, for they won't let him talk about it, and are always telling him
that his great grandfather was born in France and that he should be very
proud of it.Then there's another thing, too, that seems to worry them a lot. Louis
is crazy about mechanical engineering. He declares he's going to study
that exclusively, when he's through high school, and become an expert in
it. This nearly drives them wild. They want him to be a "statesman," as
they call it, and study law and history and diplomacy and all that sort
of thing."You can serve your country best that way," they are always telling him.Once he said to them:"The United States has plenty of that sort already. _I_ want to go in
for something special." And he says they never answered a word, but
just looked queerly at each other and walked off.Another time he found that the lock on their kitchen door wouldn't work,
so he unscrewed it and took it out. He was fixing it when along came his
Aunt Yvonne. When she saw what he was doing she burst into tears and
rushed away, muttering, "The ancient blood! It will ruin
everything!"--or something in French like that.All these things do not happen frequently, of course, but when something
like it does occur, it puzzles Louis dreadfully. He always talks it over
with us when we come home together from Bridgeton High School on the
trolley, so that's why I happen to know about 

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