this, and if your foot is not better
in three days, we shall have to cut it off." For three days I was very
careful not to walk on that foot so as not to disturb this miraculous
something. I thought it must be a piece of the true cross, or perhaps
a piece of the veil of the Holy Virgin. On the third day my foot was
completely cured, and when I asked Sister Agatha what the miraculous
remedy was that she had put on it, she laughed, called me a little
silly, and showed me a box of ointment which was called "miraculous
ointment."

It was late at night when I went to sleep, and I began to expect the
farmer's wife directly morning came. I wanted her to come, and I was
afraid of her coming. Sister Marie-Aimee looked up quickly every time
the door opened. Just as we were finishing dinner, the porteress came
and asked if I were ready to go. Sister Marie-Aimee said that I should
be ready in a moment. She got up and told me to go with her. She
helped me to dress, gave me a little bundle of linen, and all of a
sudden she said, "They will bring him back to-morrow, and you will not
be there." Then she looked into my eyes, "Swear to me," she said,
"that you will say a _De Profundis_ for him every night." I promised
to do so. Then she pulled me to her quite roughly, pressed me to her
hard, and ran off to her room. I heard her saying as she went, "My
God! this is too much!" I crossed the courtyard by myself, and the
farmer's wife, who was waiting for me, took me away.

PART II

I was tucked in among a lot of old baskets in a cart covered with a
hood, and when the horse stopped of his own accord at the farm it had
been dark for a long time.

The farmer came out of the house carrying a lantern which he held high
up in the air, and which only lit up the toes of his wooden shoes. He
came and helped us to get out of the cart, then he lifted his lantern
up to my face, stood back a little and said, "What a funny little
servant girl."

His wife took me to a room where there were two beds. She showed me
mine, and told me that I should be all alone on the farm with the
cowherd next day, because every one was going to the feast of St. John.
As soon as I was up next morning, the cowherd took me to the stables to
help him give the fodder to the cattle. He showed me the sheep pens,
and told me that I was going to look after the lambs instead of old
Bibiche. He explained to me that the lambs were taken from their