And
what with the mother and father, the four children, the fifteen
grandchildren, and the three great-grandchildren, two of whom were yet in
swaddling clothes, this was really an invading tribe packed into five
vehicles.
Then the final entry was that of the little nation which had sprung from
Ambroise, who to his great grief had early lost his wife Andree. His was
such a green old age that at sixty-seven he still directed his business,
in which his sons Leonce and Charles remained simple _employes_ like his
sons-in-law--the husbands of his daughters, Pauline and Sophie--who
trembled before him, uncontested king that he remained, obeyed by one and
all, grandfather of seven big bearded young men and nine strong young
women, through four of whom he had become a great-grandfather even before
his elder, the wise Denis. For this troop six carriages were required.
And the defile lasted two hours, and the farm was soon full of a happy,
laughing throng, holiday-making in the bright June sunlight.
Mathieu and Marianne had not yet put in an appearance. Ambroise, who was
the grand master of the ceremonies that day, had made them promise to
remain in their room, like sovereigns hidden from their people, until he
should go to fetch them.
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