But his face was overcast, and he sighed heavily as he took up his hatchet and turned away; for he was the sole support of his mother and sisters, and if he did not do his work in Soignies they would starve at home.
"You will be seeing that stranger again ?" he asked her.
"Yes!" she answered with a glad triumph in her eyes; not thinking at all of him as she spoke.

"You ought to go, Jeannot, now; you are so late.

I will come and see your mother to-morrow.

And do not be cross, you dear big Jeannot.

Days are too short to snip them up into little bits by bad temper; it is only a stupid sheep-shearer that spoils the fleece by snapping at it sharp and hard; that is what Father Francis says." Bebee, having delivered her little piece of wisdom, broke her bread into her milk and ate it, lifting her face to the fresh wind and tossing crumbs to the wheeling swallows, and watching the rose-bushes nod and toss below in the breeze, and thinking vaguely how happy a thing it was to live.
Jeannot looked up at her, then went on his slow sad way through the wet lavender-shrubs and the opening buds of the lilies.
"You will only think of that stranger, Bebee, never of any of us--never again," he said; and wearily opened the little gate and went through it, and down the daybreak stillness of the lane.