hich children
screen themselves from criticism and censure.

The people of the Mont St. Michel are very poor, and the women and
children are compelled to seek some means of earning money as well
as the men. As long as the summer lasts the crowds of pilgrims and
tourists, flocking to the wonderful fortress and shrine upon the summit,
bring employment and gain to some portion of them; but in the winter
there is little to do except when the weather is fine enough to search
for shell-fish about the sands, and sell them in the villages of the
mainland. As the tide goes down, bands of women and children follow it
out for miles, taking care to retrace their steps before the sea rises
again. From Michel's cottage on the ramparts the whole plain toward
Avranches was visible, and he could hear the busy hum of voices coming
to his ear from afar through the quiet air. But on the western side of
the Mont, where the black line of the river crosses the sands, they are
more dangerous; and in this direction only the more venturesome seekers
go--boys who love any risk, and widows who are the more anxious to fill
their nets because they have no man to help them in getting their daily
bread.

The early part of the winter is not cold in Normandy, especially by the
sea. As long as the westerly winds sweep across the Atlantic, the air
is soft though damp, with fine mists hanging in it, which shine with
rainbow tints in the sunlight. Sometimes Christmas and the New Year
find the air still genial, in spite of the short days and the long rainy
nights. Strong gales may blow, but so long as they do not come from the
dry east or frosty north there is no real severity of weather.

It was such a Christmas week that year. Not one of the women or children
had yet been forced to stay away from the sands on account of the cold.
Upon Christmas eve there was a good day, though, a short one, before
them, for it was low water about noon, and the high tide would not be in
before six. All the daylight would be theirs. It was a chance not to be
missed, for as the tides grew later in the day their time for fishing
would be cut shorter. Almost every woman and child turned out through
the gate with their nets in their hands. By midday the plain was dotted
over by them, and the wintry sun shone pleasantly down, and the quiet
rock caught the echo of their voices. Farther away, out of sight and
hearing, the men also were busy, Michel among them, casting nets upon