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Frédéric Mistral - Poet and Leader in Provence by Charles Alfred Downer
page 11 of 196 (05%)
He was born in 1830, on the 8th day of September, at Maillane. Maillane
is a village, near Saint-Rémy, situated in the centre of a broad plain
that lies at the foot of the Alpilles, the westernmost rocky heights of
the Alps. Here the poet is still living, and here he has passed his life
almost uninterruptedly. His father's home was a little way out of the
village, and the boy was brought up at the _mas_,[1] amid farm-hands and
shepherds. His father had married a second time at the age of
fifty-five, and our poet was the only child of this second marriage.

The story of the first meeting of his parents is thus told by the
poet:--

"One year, on St. John's day, Maître François Mistral was in the midst
of his wheat, which a company of harvesters were reaping. A throng of
young girls, gleaning, followed the reapers and raked up the ears that
fell. Maître François (Mèste Francés in Provençal), my father, noticed a
beautiful girl that remained behind as if she were ashamed to glean like
the others. He drew near and said to her:--

"'My child, whose daughter are you? What is your name?'

"The young girl replied, 'I am the daughter of Etienne Poulinet, Maire
of Maillane. My name is Délaïde.'

"'What! the daughter of the Maire of Maillane gleaning!'

"'Maître,' she replied, 'our family is large, six girls and two boys,
and although our father is pretty well to do, as you know, when we ask
him for money to dress with, he answers, "Girls, if you want finery,
earn it!" And that is why I came to glean.'
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