For it must be known that George had not been an idler in his father's establishment.

There was a trade of wood-cutting upon the mountain-side, with a saw-mill turned by water beneath, over which George had presided almost since he had left the school of the commune.

When his father told him that he was bound to do something before he got married, he could not have intended to accuse him of having been hitherto idle.

Of the wood-cutting and the saw-mill George knew as much as Marie did of the poultry and the linen.

Michel was wrong, probably, in his attempt to separate them.
The house was large enough, or if not, there was still room for another house to be built in Granpere.