They returned home in triumph, Canda following them with bitter
cries, tearing her face with a shark's tooth. From observation of these
circumstances, I concluded that Canda must be the mother of my little
_protege_. My heart sympathized with her, and I even made some steps
forward to restore him; but the sight of the savage crowd, with their
tattooed bodies, filled me with such terror, that I retreated
involuntarily to the grotto, where my children, alarmed by the noise,
were hiding themselves.
"'Why do the people cry out so?' said Sophia, 'they frighten me. Don't
let them come here, mamma, or they may carry Minou away,'
"'Certainly,' said I; 'and I should have no right to forbid them. I
think they are his friends who are distressed at losing him; I wish I
could restore him to them.'
"'Oh, no! mamma,' said Matilda. 'Pray don't give him back; we like him
so much, and we will be his little mammas. He will be far happier with
us than with those ugly savages, who tied him up like a parcel in the
bark, with the moss which pricked him so much; he is much more
comfortable in my apron. How he moves his legs as if he wanted to walk;
Sophia and I will teach him. Do let us keep him, mimi.'
"Even if I had decided, it was now too late; the savages had passed on
to some distance.
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