I
could not submit to it. The prefect has been unusually busy of late. The
schoolmaster has been required to send in a list of the peasants whose
children, on the plea of poverty, receive gratuitous education. The
children of those who do not vote with the prefect are to have it no
longer.'
I asked what were the wages of labour.
'Three francs and half a day,' he said, 'during the harvest, with
food--which includes cider. In ordinary times one franc a day with food,
or a franc and a half without food.'
'It seems then,' I said, 'that you can feed a man for half a franc a
day?'
'He can feed himself,' said M. Roussell, 'for that, but I cannot, or for
double that money.'
The day labourer is generally hired only for one day. A new bargain is
made every day.
The house was not uncomfortable, but very untidy. There are no ricks,
everything is stored in large barns, where it is safe from weather, but
terribly exposed to vermin.
A bright-complexioned servant-girl was in the kitchen preparing an
enormous bowl of soup, of which bread, potatoes, and onions were the
chief solid ingredients.
'Roussell,' said Beaumont, 'is superior to his class.
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