Ernest Pérochon

“ Madeleine had her kitchen to herself. She had hired for the day an elderly woman to help her, a Dissenter who followed the threshing machine from one farm to another, washing the dishes and carrying wine to the workers, toward evening, when the men began to get a little too forward with the girls. ”

“ At the meat table, a Protestant argued:
"That doesn't make sense. It is not what enters the body that sullies the soul."
"That's your idea," Boiseriot answered, "but everybody isn't of your faith."
"No," added another Catholic, "a man's a Christian or he isn't.— We have priests to lead us, and all we have to do is follow them. Some folks live like the animals——"
The Protestant shrugged his shoulders and cut off a slice of pork; he had ceased to believe very deeply in anything, so these discussions seemed silly to him. But the reply came like a shot from the Dissenters' table. ”

“ Six men were serving the machine: two who cut the bands and prepared the sheaves, and four feeders, who threw the grain into the hopper, each in his turn. In all there were some fifty men.
The younger men climbed on top of the stack and flung down the sheaves; the strongest among them were at the sacks; the older men took the slower and more particular work, raking and sorting the broken ears, or were employed at such work as the young fellows avoided on account of the dust.
To build up the straw stacks there were seven or eight husky lads, proud of their strength. ”

“ Coming up to the machine, she held up the bottle.
"Hey there, feeders!"
But they didn't hear, so absorbed were they in their strenuous task; or else they shook their heads quickly, as much as to say:
"No, no! Not now!"
The second time Tiennette came around, Boiseriot and Trooper, whose turn it was to rest, called to her. But Trooper took nothing but a drink of water, and Boiseriot remarked on it:
"Water? Are you afraid of a glass of wine to-day—a man like you?"
"I know myself, you see," said Trooper. "After the second glass, I'm inclined to do wild things. ”

“ The kitchen work bothered her far less than the men's teasing. There were six of them who carried the grain sacks; not all of them good looking, but all as young as herself—six boys of eighteen years, who trotted in single file through the passage and up to the loft. ”