d his skinny hand over my legs and felt them, shaking
his head the while and making a grimace.

I had already seen a similar scene enacted when the cattle dealer came
to buy our cow. He also had felt and pinched the cow. He also had shaken
his head and said that it was not a good cow, it would be impossible to
sell it again, and yet after all he had bought it and taken it away with
him. Was the old man going to buy me and take me away with him? Oh,
Mother Barberin! Mother Barberin!

If I had dared I would have said that only the night before Barberin had
reproached me for seeming delicate and having thin arms and legs, but I
felt that I should gain nothing by it but an angry word, so I kept
silent.

For a long time they wrangled over my good and bad points.

"Well, such as he is," said the old man at last, "I'll take him, but
mind you, I don't buy him outright. I'll hire him. I'll give you twenty
francs a year for him."

"Twenty francs!"

"That's a good sum, and I'll pay in advance."

"But if I keep him the town will pay me more than ten francs a month."

"I know what you'd get from the town, and besides you've got to feed
him."

"He will work."

"If you thought that he could work you wouldn't be so anxious to get rid
of him. It is not for the money that's paid for their keep that you
people take in lost children, it's for the work that you can get out of
them. You make servants of them, they pay you and they themselves get no
wages. If this child could have done much for you, you would have kept
him."

"Anyway, I should always have ten francs a month."

"And if the Home, instead of letting you have him, gave him to some one
else, you wouldn't get anything at all. Now with me you won't have to
run for your money, all you have to do is to hold out your hand."

He pulled a leather purse from his pocket, counting out four silver
pieces of money; he threw them down on the table, making them ring as
they fell.

"But think," cried Barberin; "this child's parents will show up one day
or the other."

"What does that matter?"

"Well, those who've brought him up will get something. If I hadn't
thought of that I wouldn't have taken him in the first place."

Oh! the wicked man! How I did dislike Barberin!

"Now, look here, it's because you think his parents won't show up now
that you're turning him out," said the old man. "Well, if by any chance
they do appear, they'll go straight to you, not to me, for nobo