melting of the winter's snows?
Was not the sun warmer, the heaven bluer, the ground fragrant as if
newly awake? Soon the mulberry trees would be sending forth their
leaves. Until they did, however, it would be useless to hatch the eggs
so carefully laid away, for there would be no food to give the ravenous
little spinners should they rouse from their long sleep.

And so Marie, and Pierre, and their mother strove to be patient,
contenting themselves in the meantime with preparing the empty rooms of
the silk-house, where the caterpillars were to be raised. Many a time
they had not only seen this done but had assisted in the process. Every
step of the work was familiar. They knew well that the labor of making
the place immaculate was far from wasted, for unless the rooms were
spotless the fastidious spinners would either sicken and die, or would
refuse to fashion their wonderful webs.

M. Bretton, who had spent a good portion of his slender income in
constructing the up-to-date shelter that housed his caterpillars, often
laughingly declared that their accommodations were far more luxurious
than were those where his own family lived. Nevertheless it was money
well invested, he argued, since already he had got back from the sale of
his cocoons many times over what the plant had cost him. So successful
had he been that his example had been followed by many of his more
prosperous neighbors until now Bellerivre, tiny as it was, could boast
as fine equipment for sericulture as could be found in all France.

Poor M. Bretton! How proud he had been of his handiwork! How modestly
exultant over his good fortune! And now that he had been forced to
abandon it all and go to the Great War it was unthinkable to his wife
and children that they should not take up his work and strive to carry
it on. Nay, the very bread they ate depended upon their doing so.

Hence do you marvel that Marie, Pierre, and Madame Bretton labored early
and late and denied themselves many things they wanted, that instead the
money might be spent to further the industry that M. Bretton had
cherished? And since what we work for becomes the centre of our
interests it logically followed that all three of them found their task
an absorbingly fascinating one. Playtime and study were cast cheerfully
aside, and in place of them the boy and girl received each day the more
vital compensations that come from unselfishness and hard work.

It was Marie who first detected th