But all weathers are alike to the women in these continental countries.
To them and the other animals, life is serious; nothing interrupts their slavery.

Three of them were washing clothes in the river under the window when I arrived, and they continued at it as long as there was light to work by.

One was apparently thirty; another--the mother!--above fifty; the third--grandmother!--so old and worn and gray she could have passed for eighty; I took her to be that old.
They had no waterproofs nor rubbers, of course; over their shoulders they wore gunnysacks--simply conductors for rivers of water; some of the volume reached the ground; the rest soaked in on the way.
"At last a vigorous fellow of thirty-five arrived, dry and comfortable, smoking his pipe under his big umbrella in an open donkey-cart-husband, son, and grandson of those women! He stood up in the cart, sheltering himself, and began to superintend, issuing his orders in a masterly tone of command, and showing temper when they were not obeyed swiftly enough.
"Without complaint or murmur the drowned women patiently carried out the orders, lifting the immense baskets of soggy, wrung-out clothing into the cart and stowing them to the man's satisfaction.

There were six of the great baskets, and a man of mere ordinary strength could not have lifted any one of them.

The cart being full now, the Frenchman descended, still sheltered by his umbrella, entered the tavern, and the women went drooping homeward, trudging in the wake of the cart, and soon were blended with the deluge and lost to sight.
"When I went down into the public room, the Frenchman had his bottle of wine and plate of food on a bare table black with grease, and was "chomping" like a horse.