"And then," Marie went on, "Lisette, she is the poppies' mother, and
she hear them, and she come wiz yells, too, and try to drive
Coquelicot, but he take her wiz his teeth and shake her, and throw her
away, and go on to make faces, and all is horreebl' noise, to wake
deads. So Old Billy call me, and I come, and I go softly behind
Coquelicot, and down I put me, and Madame speak in her angry voice
justly in Coquelicot's ear. 'La la! tra la li la!' deep down like so,
full wiz angryness, terreebl', yes! And Coquelicot he jump, oh my! oh
my! never he could jump so of all his life. And the tail bit-ween his
legs, and there that he run, run, as if all devils run after him. Yes,
funny, Petie, vairy funny!" She laughed, and Petie laughed in violent,
noisy peals, as children love to do, each gust of merriment fanning the
fire for another, till all control is lost, and the little one drops
into an irrepressible fit of the "giggles." So they sat under the
pine-trees, the two children, and laughed, and Marie forgot the hunger
at her heart; till suddenly she looked and saw her husband standing
near, leaning on his rake and gazing at her with grave, uncomprehending
eyes. Then the laugh froze on her lips, and she rose hastily, with the
little timid smile which was all she had for Jacques (yet he was hungry
too, so hungry! and knew not what ailed him!) and went to meet him;
while Petie ran away through the grove, as fast as his little legs
would carry him.

CHAPTER VIII.

A FLOWER IN THE SNOW.

The winter, when it came, was hard for Marie. She had never known
severe weather before, and this season it was bitter cold. People