Herbert Quick
The Brown Mouse
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066176358
Table of Contents
JENNIE ARRANGES A CHRISTMAS PARTY
CHAPTER I
A MAIDEN’S “HUMPH”
A Farm-hand nodded in answer to a question asked him by Napoleon on the morning of Waterloo. The nod was false, or the emperor misunderstood—and Waterloo was lost. On the nod of a farm-hand rested the fate of Europe.
This story may not be so important as the battle of Waterloo—and it may be. I think that Napoleon was sure to lose to Wellington sooner or later, and therefore the words “fate of Europe” in the last paragraph should be understood as modified by “for a while.” But this story may change the world permanently. We will not discuss that, if you please. What I am endeavoring to make plain is that this history would never have been written if a farmer’s daughter had not said “Humph!” to her father’s hired man.
Of course she never said it as it is printed. People never say “Humph!” in that way. She just