story of an old
man, blind like me, named Tobias; the history of Joseph; the history
of David; the history of Jesus Christ. And then he made me repeat them
after him. But my head, it was hard--it was hard; it was not used to
learning, and I was always getting tired in my arms and my legs."

"And he tormented us to death," said his wife, laughing.

"True, true," replied he, laughing also; "I became cross. He came again,
and said,

"'James, you must go to work.'

"I showed him my poor, burned hands.

"'It is no matter; I have bought you a capital in trade.'

"'Me, Mr. Desgranges?'

"'Yes, James, a capital into which they never put goods, and where they
always find them.'

"'It must have cost you a great deal, sir.'

"'Nothing at all, my lad.'

"'What is then this fund?'

"'The river.'

"'The river? Do you wish me to become a fisherman?'

"'Not all; a water-carrier.'

"'Water-carrier! but eyes?'

"'Eyes; of what use are they? do the dray-horses have eyes? If they do,
they make use of them; if they do not, they do without them. Come, you
must be a water-carrier.'

"'But a cask?'

"'I will give you one.'

"'A cart?'

"'I have ordered one at the cart-maker's.'

"'But customers?'

"I will give you my custom, to begin with, eighteen francs a month; (my
dear friend pays for water as dearly as for wine.) Moreover, you have
nothing to say, either yes or no. I have dismissed my water-carrier,
and you would not let my wife and me die with thirst. This dear Madame
Desgranges, just think of it. And so, my boy, in three days--work. And
you, Madam James, come here;' and he carried off Juliana."

"Yes, sir," continued the wife, "he carried me off, ordered leather
straps, made me buy the wheels, harnessed me; we were all astonishment,
James and I; but stop, if you can, when Mr. Desgranges drives you.
At the end of three days, here we are with the cask, he harnessed and
drawing it, I behind, pushing; we were ashamed at crossing the village,
as if we were doing something wrong; it seemed as if everybody would
laugh at us. But Mr. Desgranges was there in the street.

"'Come on, James,' said he, 'courage.'

"We came along, and in the evening he put into our hands a piece of
money, saying," continued the blind man, with emotion--

"'James, here are twenty sous you have earned to-day.'

"Earned, sir, think of that! earned, it was fifteen months that I had
only eaten what had been given to me. It is good to re