m a closet, and Perrine, who, while listening,
had been looking at her, saw that the sheets were made of a thick yellow
canvas. It was so long since she had slept in sheets that she ought to
think herself fortunate to get even these, hard though they were. La
Rouquerie on her tramps had never spent money for a bed, and a long time
ago the sheets they had in the wagon, with the exception of those kept
for her mother, had been sold or worn to rags.

She went with Rosalie across the yard where about twenty men, women and
children were seated on a clump of wood or standing about, talking and
smoking, waiting for the hour to retire. How could all these people live
in the old house, which seemed far from large?

At the sight of the attic, after Rosalie had lit a candle stuck behind a
wire trellis, Perrine understood. In a space of six yards long and a
little more than three wide, six beds were placed along the length of
the walls, and the passage between the beds was only one yard wide. Six
people, then, had to spend the night in a place where there was scarcely
room for two. Although a little window opened on the yard opposite the
door, there was a rank, sharp odor which made Perrine gasp. But she said
nothing.

"Well," said Rosalie, "you think it's a bit small, eh?"

"Yes, it is, rather," was all she said.

"Four sous a night is not one hundred sous, you know," remarked Rosalie.

"That is true," answered Perrine, with a smothered sigh.

After all, it was better for her to have a place in this tiny room than
be out in the woods and fields. If she had been able to endure the odor
in Grain-of-Salt's shack, she would probably be able to bear it here.

"There's your bed," said Rosalie, pointing to one placed near the
window.

What she called a bed was a straw mattress placed on four feet and held
together by two boards. Instead of a pillow there was a sack.

"You know," said Rosalie, "this is fresh straw; they never give old
straw to anyone to sleep on. In the hotels they do that sort of thing,
but we don't here."

Although there were too many beds in the little room, there was not one
chair.

"There are some nails on the walls," said Rosalie, in reply to Perrine's
questioning look; "you can hang your clothes up there."

There were also some boxes and baskets under the bed. If the lodgers had
any underwear they could make use of these, but as Perrine had only what
she was wearing, the nail at the head of the bed w