, obeyed a mere twitch or a special low call back to the
roadside, knowing very well that, the danger once past, they could
finish their browsing in the next field. Old mother Tonsard, who was
getting more and more infirm, succeeded Mouche in his duties, after
Fourchon, under pretence of caring for his natural grandson's education,
kept him to himself; while Marie and Catherine made hay in the woods.
These girls knew the exact spots where the fine forest-grass abounded,
and there they cut and spread and cocked and garnered it, supplying two
thirds, at least, of the winter fodder, and leading the cows on all fine
days to sheltered nooks where they could still find pasture. In certain
parts of the valley of Les Aigues, as in all places protected by a chain
of mountains, in Piedmont and in Lombardy for instance, there are spots
where the grass keeps green all the year. Such fields, called in Italy
"marciti," are of great value; though in France they are often in danger
of being injured by snow and ice. This phenomenon is due, no doubt, to
some favorable exposure, and to the infiltration of water which keeps
the ground at a warmer temperature.

The calves were sold for about eighty francs. The milk, deducting the
time when the cows calved or went dry, brought in about one hundred and
sixty francs a year besides supplying the wants of the family. Tonsard
himself managed to earn another hundred and sixty by doing odd jobs of
one kind or another.

The sale of food and wine in the tavern, after all costs were paid,
returned a profit of about three hundred francs, for the great
drinking-bouts happened only at certain times and in certain seasons;
and as the topers who indulged in them gave Tonsard and his wife due
notice, the latter bought in the neighboring town the exact quantity of
provisions needed and no more. The wine produced by Tonsard's vineyard
was sold in ordinary years for twenty francs a cask to a wine-dealer at
Soulanges with whom Tonsard was intimate. In very prolific years he got
as much as twelve casks from his vines; but eight was the average; and
Tonsard kept half for his own traffic. In all wine-growing districts the
gleaning of the large vineyards gives a good perquisite, and out of
it the Tonsard family usually managed to obtain three casks more. But
being, as we have seen, sheltered and protected by the keepers, they
showed no conscience in their proceedings,--entering vineyards
before the harvesters were