"Six months after this meeting, which reminds one of the ancient scene
of Ruth and Boaz, Maître François asked Maître Poulinet for the hand of
Délaïde, and I was born of that marriage."

His father's lands were extensive, and a great number of men were
required to work them. The poem, _Mirèio_, is filled with pictures of
the sort of life led in the country of Maillane. Of his father he says
that he towered above them all, in stature, in wisdom, and in nobleness
of bearing. He was a handsome old man, dignified in language, firm in
command, kind to the poor about him, austere with himself alone. The
same may be said of the poet to-day. He is a strikingly handsome man,
vigorous and active, exceedingly gracious and simple in manner. His
utter lack of affectation is the more remarkable, in view of the fact
that he has been for years an object of adulation, and lives in constant
and close contact with a population of peasants.

His schooling began at the age of nine, but the boy played truant so
frequently that he was sent to boarding-school in Avignon. Here he had a
sad time of it, and seems especially to have felt the difference of
language. Teachers and pupils alike made fun of his patois, for which he
had a strong attachment, because of the charm of the songs his mother
sung to him. Later he studied well, however, and became filled with a
love of Virgil and Homer. In them he found pictures of life that
recalled vividly the labors, the ways, and the ideas of the Maillanais.
At this time, too, he attempted a translation, in Provençal, of the
first eclogue of Virgil, and confided his efforts to a school-mate,
Anselme Mathieu, who became his life-long friend and one of the most
active among the Félibres.