They have no opportunity of contrasting their life and belongings with those of other children more richly nurtured.
The infant Jasmin slept no less soundly in his little cot stuffed with larks' feathers than if he had been laid on a bed of down.

Then he was nourished by his mother's milk, and he grew, though somewhat lean and angular, as fast as any king's son.

He began to toddle about, and made acquaintances with the neighbours' children.
After a few years had passed, Jasmin, being a spirited fellow, was allowed to accompany his father at night in the concerts of rough music.
He placed a long paper cap on his head, like a French clown, and with a horn in his hand he made as much noise, and played as many antics, as any fool in the crowd.

Though the tailor could not read, he usually composed the verses for the Charivari; and the doggerel of the father, mysteriously fructified, afterwards became the seed of poetry in the son.
The performance of the Charivari was common at that time in the South of France.

When an old man proposed to marry a maiden less than half his age, or when an elderly widow proposed to marry a man much younger than herself, or when anything of a heterogeneous kind occurred in any proposed union, a terrible row began.