or cattle, or running errands, or
performing any trifling commission for the farmers or graziers. When he
had filled to a slight extent his little purse, he went home at night
and emptied the whole contents into his mother's hand. His heart often
sank as she received his earnings with smiles and tears. "Poor child,"
she would say, "your help comes just in time." Thus the bitter thought
of poverty and the evidences of destitution were always near at hand.

In the autumn Jasmin went gleaning in the cornfields, for it was his
greatest pleasure to bring home some additional help for the family
needs. In September came the vintage--the gathering in and pressing of
the grapes previous to their manufacture into wine. The boy was able,
with his handy helpfulness, to add a little more money to the home
store. Winter followed, and the weather became colder. In the dearth of
firewood, Jasmin was fain to preserve his bodily heat, notwithstanding
his ragged clothes, by warming himself by the sun in some sheltered nook
so long as the day lasted; or he would play with his companions, being
still buoyed up with the joy and vigour of youth.

When the stern winter set in, Jasmin spent his evenings in the company
of spinning-women and children, principally for the sake of warmth. A
score or more of women, with their children, assembled in a large room,
lighted by a single antique lamp suspended from the ceiling. The women
had distaffs and heavy spindles, by means of which they spun a kind of
coarse pack-thread, which the children wound up, sitting on stools
at their feet. All the while some old dame would relate the old-world
ogreish stories of Blue Beard, the Sorcerer, or the Loup Garou, to
fascinate the ears and trouble the dreams of the young folks. It was
here, no doubt, that Jasmin gathered much of the traditionary lore which
he afterwards wove into his poetical ballads.

Jasmin had his moments of sadness. He was now getting a big fellow, and
his mother was anxious that he should receive some little education. He
had not yet been taught to read; he had not even learnt his A B C. The
word school frightened him. He could not bear to be shut up in a close
room--he who had been accustomed to enjoy a sort of vagabond life in the
open air. He could not give up his comrades, his playing at soldiers,
and his numerous escapades.

The mother, during the hum of her spinning-wheel, often spoke in
whispers to grandfather Boe of her desire to s