RURAL VIRTUE
That night Marie Tonsard was stationed on the road to Soulanges, sitting on the rail of a culvert waiting for Bonnebault, who had spent the day, as usual, at the Cafe de la Paix.She heard him coming at some distance, and his step told her that he was drunk, and she knew also that he had lost money, for he always sang if he won.
"Is that you, Bonnebault?"
"Yes, my girl."
"What's the matter?"
"I owe twenty-five francs, and they may wring my neck twenty-five times before I can pay them."
"Well, I know how you can get five hundred," she said in his ear.
"Oh! by killing a man; but I prefer to live."
"Hold your tongue.Vaudoyer will give us five hundred francs if you will let him catch your mother at a tree."
"I'd rather kill a man than sell my mother.There's your old grandmother; why don't you sell her?"
"If I tried to, my father would get angry and stop the trick."
"That's true.Well, anyhow, my mother sha'n't go to prison, poor old thing! She cooks my food and keeps me in clothes, I'm sure I don't know how.Go to prison,--and through me! I shouldn't have any bowels within me; no, no! And for fear any one else should sell her, I'll tell her this very night not to kill any more trees."
"Well, my father may say and do what he likes, but I shall tell him there are five hundred francs to be had, and perhaps he'll ask my grandmother if she'll earn them.They'll never put an old woman seventy-eight years of age in prison,--though, to be sure, she'd be better off there than in her garret."
"Five hundred francs! well, yes; I'll speak to my mother," said Bonnebault, "and if it suits her to give 'em to me, I'll let her have part to take to prison.She could knit, and amuse herself; and she'd be well fed and lodged, and have less trouble than she has at Conches.
Well, to-morrow, my girl, I'll see you about it; I haven't time to stop now."
The next morning at daybreak Bonnebault and his old mother knocked at the door of the Grand-I-Vert.Mother Tonsard was the only person up.
"Marie!" called Bonnebault, "that matter is settled."
"You mean about the trees?" said Mother Tonsard; "yes, it is all settled; I've taken it."
"Nonsense!" cried Mother Bonnebault, "my son has got the promise of an acre of land from Monsieur Rigou--"
The two old women squabbled as to which of them should be sold by her children.The noise of the quarrel woke up the household.Tonsard and Bonnebault took sides for their respective mothers.
"Pull straws," suggested Tonsard's wife.
The short straw gave it in favor of the tavern.
Three days later, in the forest of Ville-aux-Fayes at daybreak, the gendarmes arrested old Mother Tonsard caught "in flagrante delicto" by the bailiff, his assistants, and the field-keeper, with a rusty file which served to tear the tree, and a chisel, used by the delinquent to scoop round the bark just as the insect bores its way.The indictment stated that sixty trees thus destroyed were found within a radius of five hundred feet.The old woman was sent to Auxerre, the case coming under the jurisdiction of the assize-court.
Michaud could not refrain from saying when he discovered Mother Tonsard at the foot of the tree: "These are the persons on whom the general and Madame la comtesse have showered benefits! Faith, if Madame would only listen to me, she wouldn't give that dowry to the Tonsard girl, who is more worthless than her grandmother."
The old woman raised her gray eyes and darted a venomous look at Michaud.When the count learned who the guilty person was, he forbade his wife to give the money to Catherine Tonsard.