Chapter 10: Arrangement

 The Bonapartes are a very traditional Corsican family. It also meant that women were less in charge of their families. Letizia was a wonderful wife and great mother, and she always took even the toughest times in silence. But she's also a very traditional Corsican woman who doesn't speak up when she needs to make a decision.

 So, after Carlo's death, almost all of the decisions in the household had fallen to Joseph. When the younger siblings had something to ask their mom, she always said, "Go ask your brother and see what he has to say." It's like when she used to say when they were kids back then, "Ask your father," when Carlo was still around.

 So Joseph was instantly busy, first making arrangements for his father's funeral, then dealing with the estate and debts. It was good to have his uncle to help in these matters, and the presence of Bishop Menier made it much more difficult for those who wished to take advantage of the absence of a grown man in the house to do so. So these things went down very well.

 By the third day after the funeral, the various things left behind were largely taken care of. That evening, Joseph called his mother, his uncle, and several of his younger siblings together.

 "Mom, uncle, and my siblings. Father's funeral, and everything related to it is basically over as of today. "Joseph spoke up, "After the loss of our father, and things changed drastically in our family. Our previous way of life will definitely change a lot as well. We must adapt to such changes and prepare for them in advance. Now, I will tell all about the changes that may be taking place in our home."

 Everyone then listened quietly to Joseph.

 "When our father died, his salary naturally went away. As all of you know, our family's estate is small and produces very little output, and without this salary of our fathers's at the governor's office, our family's income would have to shrink to one-third of what it had been before, just by the output of what little that remains of our family's estate. This also means that our income is just barely enough to make ends meet. Siblings, your pocket money and even education funding will be less than before. Napoleon, You are a student of the Brienne Military Academy, and you will naturally serve in the military when you graduate in the future. You don't need to spend any money in military academy. But the pocket money for you will probably be cancelled.

 "That's no problem," Napoleon said.

 "I've learned a little bit about your accomplishments over the years." Joseph went on to say, "Your math, geography, and history are all very good. But your language scores disappoint me."

 "Math, geography, and history are all useful in war. Language, on the other hand..." Napoleon was a bit unconvinced.

 "O my foolish brother, words are tools of battle too!" Joseph glanced at Napoleob and said, "Don't you know what Octavian relied on to defeat Brutus back then? The ability to use language has been essential to a good general since time immemorial."

 Upon hearing Joseph use Emperor Octavian as an example, Napoleon stopped retorting.

 But Joseph was not willing to let Napoleon off the hook just yet, and he continued to stare at Napoleon: "Lets say, for example, that today our family is temporarily in trouble. In order to earn more money to support our brother's and sister's education, we had to have someone who could step up and take over for our father. As you know, I have one more year to graduate. But now, we are in trouble. I could find something to if I dropped out of school now, but of course, it still won't be as good as when our father was still around. But it's a number thats's barely enough to support the family. Obviously, dropping out of school now is not the best thing for either me or the family in the long run. But we can't ignore the life in front of us. So I have a different plan for a change of pace. I had a classmate named Darcy who was Mr. Lavoisier's nephew. Napoleon, I metioned this guy in my letter to you. He has quite a few translations of plays and poems on his hand that he can pass on to me. This way I can have some income while continuing my studies, plus my classmate Rafa can lend me some money, so if our family is more frugal, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to support us for a year. Of course if you get a little better language score, Napoleon, maybe you can join in and do what you can, and kind of help out the family, and I'll would be able ro relax a little bit. yet with the kind of accomplishments you have now, I wouldn't even dare to leave such things in your hands."

 "I know; I'll work on that in the future," Napoleod said, lowering his head.

 Then Joseph turned to his other brothers.

 "Lucien, even though you're young right now. But you also need to realize that you are also the man of the house and have to study hard. Our family has the title of nobility, but it is not one of those French aristocrats who can do nothing and eat frog legs all day. The men in our family must be competent. Lucien, do you know where all the outstanding people get their skills from? It all comes from learning, from beating the odds stack against them. You are now at an age where you should get some education. I will try to ensure that your education will not be affected financially, but you must work hard yourself.

 Louis, you're the same. Wait until next year, when I graduate and get a good job in Paris. If possible, I'll take both you and Lucien to Paris to be educated. Paris is, after all, much better than Corsica in terms of educational environment."

 "Joseph, I'm graduating at the end of the year. Nowadays, however, I have an opportunity to be selected for the Paris Military Academy, from where I can graduate to a higher position and a better career. I don't know if..." Napoleon said hesitantly.

 "O foolish brother of mine, what is there to hesitate about in such matters? Are you doubting your brother's ability to provide for his family on the basis of your stupid wisdom? You just go to the Paris Military Academy and leave the current matters to me," Joseph said confidently.

"Joseph, where am I being stupid? I'm just..." In a rare move, Napoleon protested against Joseph's characterization of himself as being labeled as "stupid.".

 "Oh?" Joseph immediately said, "Napoleon, your geometry is the most outstanding of all your subjects. Do you need me to give you a title you can use to put yourself in the right perspective?"

 Napoleon was stunned and, after a moment, said resentfully, "Joseph, you are not a good man."

.....

 After spending a couple of days getting things basically sorted out back home, it was time to go back to Paris again. During these days, as well as along the way, whenever he had a spare moment, even if it was only for ten minutes or so, Joseph seized the time to translate those things Darcy had given him in his hand. When he arrived in Paris early the next morning, Joseph first went to the school to cancel his vacation, and then he found Darcy and handed him a volume of manuscripts that were currently being translated.

 "Here's the translation of The Timon of Athens and Milton's Samson of Agonistes; see if there's anything that needs to be changed, and I'll change it," Joseph said to Darcy.

 "Joseph, I can't believe you finish translating this so quickly." Darcy was taken aback and said, "That's simply not possible for me without more than half a year to do it."

 "You're slow doing it because of fine work, and I do it fast, but it's a lot cruder," Joseph said.

 "Joseph, I love it when you say that. I know myself, however, that I'm slow not because of finesse, but because I'm lazy to do things, like the lazy kings of history (a series of sevent-century Frankish monarchs who neglected the affairs of the state). You, on the other hand, are an industrious worker. And the translation of literature is actually best done in a single session. That way the emotion and momentum stay coherent. Well, I'll take a look at it sometime. As for the pay, I'll give it to you in a few days."

 Darcy had always been delayed in doing things, and when he said the pay would be delivered in a few days, Joseph was prepared to wait for half a month. Unexpectedly, however, it was really only three days later that Darcy handed over to Joseph the commission for translating the work—fifty francs in all.

 "Joseph, the quality of the manuscripts is good. You'd be earning six hundred francs a year if you could keep up this quality and writing speed. Plus your scholarship; by the way, how many brothers do you have?"

 'Four, three of which are of age to be educated. But the oldest one is in military school, and it doesn't cost as much as it does for me," Joseph replied.

 "Ah, so there's only two younger brothers who needs you to spend money..." Darcy made a calculation in his mind and said, "Oops, this amount of money is completely insufficient. For that amount of money, Joseph you can't have any more ale in the future, and as for foie grass, you're even going to have to say goodbye to them. You can't even add butter to the bread you eat, you can only one lamb chop a month, which you will eat for three days; on the first day you eat the meat from the lamb chop, on the second day you eat the fat from the lamb chop, and on the third day you gnaw on the bones. When you're at work, you can't moke to refresh yourself, you can't event refresh yourself with black tea, you can only use the lowest grade of coffee, and there has to be a limit to the portion of the size... Geez can't you have one less brother?"

 Joseph replied, "In Corsica, we have a proverb that says, 'When it comes to dealing with a fox, you don't realize that there are too few hounds; when it comes to dealing with an enemy, you don't realize that there are too few brothers.' That's why we Corsicans never complain about having too many brothers, never complain about having too many friends."

 "That's an interesting statement." Darcy said, "It's just that it's so wordy; in fact, it could be entirely more concise. Ah, maybe the flavor changed after you translated it from Corsican dialect to French. I think that's what your translation is like; it's accurate but a bit wordy in a lot of places. If it were me, this sentence, I would translate it like this. We have a saying in Corsica that goes, 'A dog is a gog when it's time to use it."