第63章 BEATRICE MERGER(2)

and she beat me sometimes, but I did not mind it; for your hardy country girl is not like your tender town lasses, who cry if a pin pricks them, and give warning to their mistresses at the first hard word.The only drawback to my comfort was, that I had no news of my mother; I could not write to her, nor could she have read my letter, if I had; so there I was, at only six leagues' distance from home, as far off as if I had been to Paris or to 'Merica.

"However, in a few months I grew so listless and homesick, that my mistress said she would keep me no longer; and though I went away as poor as I came, I was still too glad to go back to the old village again, and see dear mother, if it were but for a day.Iknew she would share her crust with me, as she had done for so long a time before; and hoped that, now, as I was taller and stronger, Imight find work more easily in the neighborhood.

"You may fancy what a fete it was when I came back; though I'm sure we cried as much as if it had been a funeral.Mother got into a fit, which frightened us all; and as for Aunt Bridget, she SKREELEDaway for hours together, and did not scold for two days at least.

Little Pierre offered me the whole of his supper; poor little man!

his slice of bread was no bigger than before I went away.

"Well, I got a little work here and a little there; but still I was a burden at home rather than a bread-winner; and, at the closing-in of the winter, was very glad to hear of a place at two leagues'

distance, where work, they said, was to be had.Off I set, one morning, to find it, but missed my way, somehow, until it was night-time before I arrived.Night-time and snow again; it seemed as if all my journeys were to be made in this bitter weather.

"When I came to the farmer's door, his house was shut up, and his people all a-bed; I knocked for a long while in vain; at last he made his appearance at a window up stairs, and seemed so frightened, and looked so angry that I suppose he took me for a thief.I told him how I had come for work.'Who comes for work at such an hour?'

said he.'Go home, you impudent baggage, and do not disturb honest people out of their sleep.' He banged the window to; and so I was left alone to shift for myself as I might.There was no shed, no cow-house, where I could find a bed; so I got under a cart, on some straw; it was no very warm berth.I could not sleep for the cold:

and the hours passed so slowly, that it seemed as if I had been there a week instead of a night; but still it was not so bad as the first night when I left home, and when the good farmer found me.

"In the morning, before it was light, the farmer's people came out, and saw me crouching under the cart: they told me to get up; but Iwas so cold that I could not: at last the man himself came, and recognized me as the girl who had disturbed him the night before.

When he heard my name, and the purpose for which I came, this good man took me into the house, and put me into one of the beds out of which his sons had just got; and, if I was cold before, you may be sure I was warm and comfortable now! such a bed as this I had never slept in, nor ever did I have such good milk-soup as he gave me out of his own breakfast.Well, he agreed to hire me; and what do you think he gave me?--six sous a day! and let me sleep in the cow-house besides: you may fancy how happy I was now, at the prospect of earning so much money.

"There was an old woman among the laborers who used to sell us soup: I got a cupful every day for a half-penny, with a bit of bread in it; and might eat as much beet-root besides as I liked;not a very wholesome meal, to be sure, but God took care that it should not disagree with me.