The Devil's Pool

her fire. Mère Guillette lived in a wretched hovel within two gunshots of the farm. But she was a decent woman and a woman of st

, eh, Mère Guillette?" said the old man.

ng just now. I'm no beggar, you know, a

your friends are always

nd I was asking her if Germain had at

u without fear of people talking; so I will tell my wife and you that

e poor fellow! God grant that he may fi

rn out! that helps me very much, and as you asked me just now, Père Maurice,

us, we shall be

main take the trouble to

? to F

eaux, where she is going to

ce, "are you going to p

d; 'and three sheep are hardly enough for a shepherd. Would you like to keep a hundred? I'll take you with me. The shepherdess at our place has been taken sick and she's going back to her people, and if you'll come to us within a week, you shall have fifty francs for the rest of the year, up to midsummer.'-The child refused, but she couldn't help thinking about it and telling me when she came home at night and found me sad and perplexed about getting

gh fifty francs begins to mean something to people like us. But we must consult good sense as well as friendship in everything. If you were saved from want for this winter, you wouldn't be safe from future want, and

work, she cleans and rubs our poor furniture and makes every piece shine like a looking-glass. She's a child that's worth her weight in gold, and I'd have liked it much better to have her come to you as a shepherdess

very glad to do it. But, meanwhile, she will do well

sn't know the way, and I shouldn't like to send her so far all alone. As your son-in-law is going to Fourche to-morrow, he can just as

er behind him on the mare, and that will save her shoes. Here he is, coming in to supper. I say, Germain, M

was preoccupied, but always rea

e was still the handsomest man in the neighborhood. Work had not furrowed and wrinkled his face, as is the case with most peasants who have ten years of ploughing behind them. He was strong enough to plough ten more years without looking old, and the prejudice of ag

light, and, unless he was a heartless, bad man, it was impossible that he should have a guilty thought in connection with her. Père Maurice was in no way disturbed, therefore, to see him take the pretty girl en croupe; La Guillette would have considered that she was insulting him if she had requested him to respect her as his sis