sted. Part of them were laid
aside for living expenses; and part were spent in comforts for the loved
ones who were in the fighting line.

As she now had more leisure Madame Bretton went each day to the village
church to work with the other women at stripping and rolling bandages;
and when at home her deft fingers were never idle but flew to and fro at
her knitting. Marie, too, had learned to knit and although she
complained that her needles refused to _click_ as did her mother's, she
nevertheless was already able to make a sock and fashion its toe and
heel without help. As for Pierre, he split the wood, cared for the cow
and the goats, toiled in the field, brought hay from the hillsides, and
assumed much of the heavy work which his father and uncle had been
accustomed to do. A new manliness had crept into his bearing, causing
his mother to regard him with puzzled surprise, and not a little
satisfaction.

"You are a great comfort to me, Pierre," she would exclaim a score of
times a day.

Once the lad had flushed with pleasure at overhearing her say to
Monsieur le Cure:

"What should I do without my good son, my brave Pierre, to lean upon?"

Thus nearly two months sped past, and the moths within the cocoons that
had been laid aside for breeding began to hatch out and force themselves
through the small apertures they rent in their silken houses.

Marie viewed the first arrivals in consternation.

"They will fly all about the house and we shall lose them!" she cried.
"What can we do with them?"

But Pierre only laughed.

"Have no fear, little sister," he answered reassuringly. "Josef says
they will but flutter far enough to find their mates, and when their
eggs are laid they will die."

"Alas," sighed the girl, "what a wee time they have to enjoy the glory
of their new wings! Is it not sad, Mother?"

Madame Bretton regarded the child gravely for a moment; then she shook
her head and smiled into her little daughter's troubled eyes.

"It is not so sad as it seems," she answered gently. "The silkworm has
completed its work, and there is no need for it to live longer. It is so
with all of us. Each is put into the world with a task to finish, and
there can be no greater happiness than to know that that work--whatever
it was--has been faithfully accomplished. To me the lesson of these tiny
creatures' lives is an inspiration."

Marie smiled faintly, but was still unconvinced.

"But to have it all end just when t