From September to March, hares, rabbits, partridges, deer, in short, all the game that was not eaten at the chateau, was sold at Blangy and at Soulanges, where Tonsard's two daughters peddled milk in the early mornings,--coming back with the news of the day, in return for the gossip they carried about Les Aigues, and Cerneux, and Conches.

In the months when the three Tonsards were unable to hunt with a gun, they set traps.

If the traps caught more game than they could eat, La Tonsard made pies of it and sent them to Ville-aux-Fayes.

In harvest-time seven Tonsards--the old mother, the two sons (until they were seventeen years of age), the two daughters, together with old Fourchon and Mouche--gleaned, and generally brought in about sixteen bushels a day of all grains, rye, barley, wheat, all good to grind.
The two cows, led to the roadside by the youngest girl, always managed to stray into the meadows of Les Aigues; but as, if it ever chanced that some too flagrant trespass compelled the keepers to take notice of it, the children were either whipped or deprived of a coveted dainty, they had acquired such extraordinary aptitude in hearing the enemy's footfall that the bailiff or the park-keeper of Les Aigues was very seldom able to detect them.

Besides, the relations of those estimable functionaries with Tonsard and his wife tied a bandage over their eyes.