Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/170

This page has been validated.
144
NAPOLEON'S YOUNG NEIGHBOR

with the children, even when they took liberties that their parents would have disapproved, Betsy never saw him show any temper. He never fell back on his rank or age, but always professed to be one of themselves, a good comrade, claiming only for his own part the right to tease them when he chose.

What wonder that Las Cases, the dignified Chamberlain, sometimes stood aghast at the merry pranks shared by his illustrious master and his young friends; but even with the eyes of the disapproving Las Cases upon her, Betsy always enjoyed her visits to Longwood. Often some pleasant surprise awaited her on her arrival there.

Napoleon was interested in the various legends of St. Helena, and these legends are very numerous. Nearly every rock and valley and bit of water has some story connected with it. The Friar's Valley, for example, takes its name from a huge rock fashioned by nature into the figure of a monk with his cowl thrown back, wearing a flowing robe and a rosary. Immediately around are sterile rocks, some many hundred feet high, some with aloes growing from the fissures.