was silent.

"Do you know how to read?" he asked, after looking thoughtfully at me
for a moment.

"No."

"Then I'll teach you from a book the names and all about the towns
through which we travel. It will be like having a story told to you."

I had been brought up in utter ignorance. True, I had been sent to the
village school for one month, but during this month I had never once had
a book in my hand. At the time of which I write, there were many
villages in France that did not even boast of a school, and in some,
where there was a schoolmaster, either he knew nothing, or he had some
other occupation and could give little attention to the children
confided to his care.

This was the case with the master of our village school. I do not mean
to say that he was ignorant, but during the month that I attended his
school, he did not give us one single lesson. He had something else to
do. By trade he was a shoe-maker, or rather, a clog maker, for no one
bought shoes from him. He sat at his bench all day, shaving pieces of
beech wood into clogs. So I learnt absolutely nothing at school, not
even my alphabet.

"Is it difficult to read?" I asked, after we had walked some time in
silence.

"Have you got a hard head?"

"I don't know, but I'd like to learn if you'll teach me."

"Well, we'll see about that. We've plenty of time ahead of us."

Time ahead of us! Why not commence at once? I did not know how difficult
it was to learn to read. I thought that I just had to open a book and,
almost at once, know what it contained.

The next day, as we were walking along, Vitalis stooped down and picked
up a piece of wood covered with dust.

"See, this is the book from which you are going to learn to read," he
said.

A book! A piece of wood! I looked at him to see if he were joking. But
he looked quite serious. I stared at the bit of wood. It was as long as
my arm and as wide as my two hands. There was no inscription or drawing
on it.

"Wait until we get to those trees down there, where we'll rest," said
Vitalis, smiling at my astonishment. "I'll show you how I'm going to
teach you to read from this."

When we got to the trees we threw our bags on the ground and sat down on
the green grass with the daisies growing here and there. Pretty-Heart,
having got rid of his chain, sprang up into a tree and shook the
branches one after the other, as though he were making nuts fall. The
dogs lay down beside us. Vitalis took out hi