e
neighbourhood. Whenever Eugene came anywhere near me he would stop and
say a kind word. He told me that the noise they made with their guns
drove the wolves away, and that one very rarely saw any in that part of
the country. But although he said that there was little or no danger I
didn't dare go back to the big forest. I preferred to go up on to the
hill which was covered only with broom and ferns.

It the beginning of the spring the farmer's wife taught me how to milk
the cows and look after the pigs. She said she wanted to make a good
farmer of me. I could not help thinking of the Mother Superior and the
disdainful tone in which she had said to me, "You will milk the cows
and look after the pigs." When she said that, she said it as though
she were giving me a punishment, and here I was delighted at having
them to look after. I used to lean my forehead against a cow's flank
to get a better purchase, and I very soon filled my pail. At the top
of the milk a foam used to form which caught all kinds of changing
colours, and when the sun passed over it it became so marvellously
beautiful that I was never tired of looking at it.

Looking after the pigs never disgusted me. Their food was boiled
potatoes and curdled milk. I used to dip my hands into the bucket to
mix it all up, and I loved making them wait for their food a few
minutes. Their eager cries and the way they wriggled their snouts
about always amused me.

When May came Master Silvain added a she goat to my flock. He had
bought it to help Pauline to feed the little baby she had got after
they had been married ten years. This goat was more difficult to take
care of than all the rest of the flock. It was always her fault when
my flock got into the standing oats, which were pretty high. The
farmer saw what had happened and scolded me. He said that I must have
been asleep in a corner while my sheep were trampling his oats down.
Every day I had to pass near a wood of young pine trees. The goat used
to get there in three jumps, and it was while I was looking for her
that my lambs got into the oats.

The first time I waited ever so long for her to come back by herself.
I made my voice as soft as I could and called to her. At last I made
up my mind to go and fetch her, but the young pines were so close
together that I didn't know how to get after her. On the other hand, I
could not go away without knowing what had happened to the goat.