see my mother who was ill. I
asked him to let me into the house until the rain stopped. He told me
to wait, and I heard him talking to somebody else. Then he came back
to the window, and asked me if there was anybody with me. He asked me
how old I was; and when I said I was thirteen, he said I must be a
brave girl to come through the wood alone at night. He remained
leaning out of the window a moment, trying to see my face, which was
looking up towards him. Then he turned his head to right and left
trying to look into the darkness of the wood, and advised me to go on a
little further. There was a village at the other side of the wood, he
said, and I should find houses there where I could dry my clothes.

I went on into the night. The moon had hidden itself altogether, and a
drizzling rain was falling. I had to walk a long time before I got to
the village. All the houses were shut up, and I could hardly see them
in the dark. A blacksmith was the only person up. When I got to his
house I went up the two steps, meaning to rest there. He was busy with
a great iron bar, which he was heating in a fire of red coal, and when
his arm went up with the bellows he looked like a giant. Every time
the bellows came down the coal flew up and crackled. That made a
glimmering light which lit up the walls, on which scythes, saws, and
all kinds of knives were hanging. The man's forehead was wrinkled, and
he was staring at the fire. I dared not talk to him, and I went away
without making any noise.

When it became quite light I saw that I was not very far from the town.
I began to recognize the places where Sister Marie-Aimee used to take
us when we went for our walks. I was walking very slowly now, and
dragged my feet after me because they hurt me. I was so tired that it
was all I could do not to sit down on one of the heaps of stone which
were on each side of the road.

The sound of a horse and cart rattling along the road as fast as they
could go made me turn round, and I remained standing quite still with
my heart beating fast. I had recognized the bay mare and the farmer's
black beard. He stopped the mare quite close to me, leaned out of the
cart, and lifted me up into it by the belt of my dress. He sat me down
next to him on the seat, turned the horse round and drove off again at
full speed. When we got to the wood Master Silvain made the horse slow
down. He turned to me, looked at me, and said, "It is lucky