ey than sacks of flour in the windmill.

"Eventually, though, everything was revealed. Listen to this:

"One day, playing my fife at the youngsters dance, I noticed that the
eldest of my boys and little Vivette had fallen in love. Deep down, I
was not sorry; after all, Cornille was a respected name in our village,
and then again, it had pleased me to see this pretty little bundle of
fluff, Vivette, skipping around the house. But, as our lovers had lots
of opportunities to be alone together, I wanted to put the affair on a
proper footing at once, for fear of accidents, so I went up to the
windmill to have a few words with her grandfather.... But, oh, the old
devil! You wouldn't credit the manner of his welcome! I couldn't get
him to open the door. I told him through the keyhole that my intentions
were good, and meanwhile, that damned starved-looking cat was spitting
like anything above my head.

"The old man cut me short and told me, unfairly, to get back to my
flute playing, and that if I was in such a hurry to marry off my boy,
I'd be better going to look for one of the factory girls. You can
imagine how much these words made my blood boil, but, wisely, I was
able to control myself, and left the old fool to his grinding. I went
back to tell the children of my disappointment. The poor lambs couldn't
believe it; and they asked me if they could go to speak to him. I
couldn't refuse, and in a flash, the lovers went. When they arrived,
Cornille had just left. The door was double locked, but he had left his
ladder outside. The children immediately went in through the window to
see what was inside this famous windmill....

"Amazingly, the milling room was empty. Not a single sack; not one
grain of wheat. Not the least trace of flour on the walls or in the
cobwebs. There wasn't even the good warm scent of crushed wheat which
permeates windmills. The grinding machinery was covered in dust, and
the starving cat was asleep on it.

"The room below had just the same air of misery and neglect: a pitiful
bed, a few rags, a piece of bread on a step of the stairs, and notably,
in one corner, three or four burst sacks with rubble and chalk spilling
out.

"So--that was Cornille's secret! It was this plaster that was being
moved by road in the evenings. All this, just to save the reputation of
the windmill, to make people believe that flour was still being milled
there. Poor windmill. Poor Cornille! The millers had finished the last