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