y pig looking sad.'

Then, turning towards her brother, she went on with an air of rapture:

'I have named it Matthew, because it is so like that fat man who brings
the letters. It is growing so big and strong. It is very unkind of you
to refuse to come and look at it as you always do. You will come to see
it some day, won't you?'

While she was thus talking she had laid hold of her brother's share of
bread, and was eating away at it. She had already finished one piece,
and was beginning the second, when La Teuse became aware of what she was
doing.

'That doesn't belong to you, that bread! You are actually stealing his
food from him now!'

'Let her have it,' said Abbe Mouret, gently. 'I shouldn't have touched
it myself. Eat it all, my dear, eat it all.'

For a moment Desiree fell into confusion, with her eyes fixed upon the
bread, whilst she struggled to check her rising tears. Then she began to
laugh, and finished the slice.

'My cow,' said she, continuing her remarks, 'is never as sad as you are.
You were not here when uncle Pascal gave her to me, on the promise that
I would be a good girl, or you would have seen how pleased she was when
I kissed her for the first time.'

She paused to listen. A cock crowed in the yard, and a great uproar
followed, with flapping of wings and cackling, grunting, and hoarse
cries as if the whole yard were in a state of commotion.

'Ah! you know,' resumed Desiree, clapping her hands, 'she must be in
calf now. I took her to the bull at Beage, three leagues from here.
There are very few bulls hereabouts, you know.'

La Teuse shrugged her shoulders, and glanced at the priest with an
expression of annoyance.

'It would be much better, mademoiselle,' said she, 'if you were to go
and quiet your fowls. They all seem to be murdering one another.'

Indeed, the uproar in the yard had now become so great that the girl was
already hurrying off with a great rustling of her petticoats, when the
priest called her back. 'The milk, my dear; you have not finished the
milk.'

He held out his cup to her, which he had scarcely touched. And she came
back and drank the milk without the slightest scruple, in spite of La
Teuse's angry look. Then she again set off for the poultry-yard, where
they soon heard her reducing the fowls to peace and order. She had,
perhaps, sat down in the midst of them, for she could be heard gently
humming as though she were trying to lull them to sleep.

III