"Well, Mademoiselle," replied the Breton, "if it's a book, it's of no use to me. I don't know how to read!"
Paula looked at him with a mixture of surprise and pity.
"I might have been able to read," continued the poor fellow. "My mother sent me to school, but I scarcely ever actually appeared in the school-room. The streets in those days were too attractive a playground."
"No, Mademoiselle," and the Breton shook his head sadly, "It's too late now to get anything of that sort in this dull head."
Paula said nothing more at the time, but I could see that she had something in her mind relative to this new problem.
The following day Paula had a word with my father regarding the matter.
"Now don't worry any more about the Breton, Paula," he answered. "He knows enough to do what's necessary to gain his living, and if he wants to work faithfully and not spend all his money on drink, he can do that without knowing how to read. However, if it bothers you because he cannot read, why don't you advise him to go to night-school? I can't imagine what could have happened to him, but he's changed mightily, and for the better. I only hope the change in him will last!"
The days grew longer, the snow disappeared and the trees and fields began to put on their spring clothes. Week by week the Breton's home also began to show a marvelous transformation. The pigs who formerly found the garden a sort of happy rooting-ground now found themselves confronted with a neat fence that resisted all their attacks, and the garden itself with its well-raked beds, showed substantial promise of a harvest of onions, potatoes and cabbage in the near future. Spotless white curtains and shiny panes of window-glass began to show in place of the dirty rags and paper which used to stop part of the winter winds from entering, and the rain which formerly kept merry company with the wind in that unhappy dwelling now found itself completely shut out by shingles on the roof and sidewalk; and a certain air of neatness and order so pervaded the whole place that it became the talk of the little town.
"That's all very well, but it's not going to last long," said some.
The Breton had to stand a good many jests and taunts from his former companions but he took it all without either complaint or abatement of his courage.