thing
like the small looms we use in school to make rugs and hammocks. This
they usually did during the winter when there was less work to do, for
there were so many more things that had to be done during the summer
than during the winter.

In summer they had to take care of the fruit just as our mothers do.
But they did not know anything about canning it,--they would cook it a
long time and make preserves or else they would dry it. They dried
most of their fruit, making it just like the dried apples, peaches,
and apricots we buy at the store.

In France, where this picture was painted, the women worked out in the
fields just like the men. So you see how very busy they must have
been. And yet they always found time to love and care for their little
children.

We do not know even the name of this baby, or of his mother or father.
The artist, Millet, thought that of no importance at all. He did not
even care to show us their faces, any more than he would care to show
us the buttons on their clothes. The important thing is the love and
tenderness of this mother and father as they stop their work to guide,
help, and encourage their baby in taking his first step. All his life
the baby will find them never too tired or weary to help him when he
needs it most.

Peasants like these, we know, lived in France, and as a rule they were
very poor, although the two in our picture seem thrifty and
comfortable. The trees, even the grass growing up beside the fence,
seem sturdy and strong like the peasants to whom they belong.

We feel the strength of the father's extended arms, so ready and able
to protect this baby. The mother, too, will do her share. Even the
trees seem to bend toward these three as if to assure them of their
protection.

This is a simple, homelike picture, whose chief beauty lies in its
strong appeal to our feeling of sympathy with, and interest in, these
honest country people.

=Questions to help the pupil understand the picture.= What has the man
been doing? With what did he dig the potatoes? Where will he put them?
Why does he not put them in the cellar? How will he keep them all
winter? How will he bury them? Who made these peasants' clothes? the
wheelbarrow, the spade, and the pitchfork? Why did they not buy them?
How did the mother make the cloth for their clothes? When did she do
this? What must she do during the summer? How did they keep their
fruit? Why do you think they are a happy family?