The other lodging in the little house was occupied by two persons, mother and son, the Goujets as they were called.

Until then the two families had merely nodded to each other on the stairs and in the street, nothing more; the Coupeaus thought their neighbors seemed rather bearish.

Then the mother, having carried up a pail of water for Gervaise on the morrow of her confinement, the latter had thought it the proper thing to invite them to the feast, more especially as she considered them very respectable people.

And naturally, they there became well acquainted with each other.
The Goujets came from the Departement du Nord.

The mother mended lace; the son, a blacksmith, worked at an iron bolt factory.