puppets, which made them scream and make
horrible grimaces.

They clung on to the sides of the vehicle, their bonnets fell on their
backs, over their faces and on their shoulders, and the white horse went
on stretching out his head and holding out his little hairless tail like
a rat's, with which he whisked his buttocks from time to time.

Joseph Rivet, with one leg on the shafts and the other doubled under him,
held the reins with his elbows very high, and kept uttering a kind of
clucking sound, which made the horse prick up its ears and go faster.

The green country extended on either side of the road, and here and there
the colza in flower presented a waving expanse of yellow, from which
arose a strong, wholesome, sweet and penetrating odor, which the wind
carried to some distance.

The cornflowers showed their little blue heads amid the rye, and the
women wanted to pick them, but Monsieur Rivet refused to stop.

Then, sometimes, a whole field appeared to be covered with blood, so
thick were the poppies, and the cart, which looked as if it were filled
with flowers of more brilliant hue, jogged on through fields bright with
wild flowers, and disappeared behind the trees of a farm, only to
reappear and to go on again through the yellow or green standing crops,
which were studded with red or blue.

One o'clock struck as they drove up to the carpenter's door. They were
tired out and pale with hunger, as they had eaten nothing since they left
home. Madame Rivet ran out and made them alight, one after another, and
kissed them as soon as they were on the ground, and she seemed as if she
would never tire of kissing her sister-in-law, whom she apparently wanted
to monopolize. They had lunch in the workshop, which had been cleared out
for the next day's dinner.

The capital omelet, followed by boiled chitterlings and washed down with
good hard cider, made them all feel comfortable.

Rivet had taken a glass so that he might drink with them, and his wife
cooked, waited on them, brought in the dishes, took them out and asked
each of them in a whisper whether they had everything they wanted. A
number of boards standing against the walls and heaps of shavings that
had been swept into the corners gave out a smell of planed wood, a smell
of a carpenter's shop, that resinous odor which penetrates to the lungs.

They wanted to see the little girl, but she had gone to church and would
not be back again until evening, so they al