out of them, just as they swarmed into the
wheat-fields before the sheaves were made. So, the seven or eight casks
of wine, as much gleaned as harvested, were sold for a good price.
However, out of these various proceeds the Grand-I-Vert was mulcted in
a good sum for the personal consumption of Tonsard and his wife,
who wanted the best of everything to eat, and better wine than they
sold,--which they obtained from their friend at Soulanges in payment for
their own. In short, the money scraped together by this family amounted
to about nine hundred francs, for they fattened two pigs a year, one for
themselves and the other to sell.

The idlers and scapegraces and also the laborers took a fancy to the
tavern of the Grand-I-Vert, partly because of La Tonsard's merits, and
partly on account of the hail-fellow-well-met relation existing between
this family and the lower classes of the valley. The two daughters, both
remarkably handsome, followed the example of their mother as to morals.
Moreover, the long established fame of the Grand-I-Vert, dating from
1795, made it a venerable spot in the eyes of the common people. From
Conches to Ville-aux-Fayes, workmen came there to meet and make their
bargains and hear the news collected by the Tonsard women and by Mouche
and old Fourchon, or supplied by Vermichel and Brunet, that renowned
official, when he came to the tavern in search of his practitioner.
There the price of hay and of wine was settled; also that of a day's
work and of piece-work. Tonsard, a sovereign judge in such matters,
gave his advice and opinion while drinking with his guests. Soulanges,
according to a saying in these parts, was a town for society and
amusement only, while Blangy was a business borough; crushed, however,
by the great commercial centre of Ville-aux-Fayes, which had become in
the last twenty-five years the capital of this flourishing valley. The
cattle and grain market was held at Blangy, in the public square,
and the prices there obtained served as a tariff for the whole
arrondissement.

By staying in the house and doing no out-door work, La Tonsard continued
fresh and fair and dimpled, in comparison with the women who worked in
the fields and faded as rapidly as the flowers, becoming old and haggard
before they were thirty. She liked to be well-dressed. In point of
fact, she was only clean, but in a village cleanliness is a luxury. The
daughters, better dressed than their means warranted, follo