"
She herself burst into a laugh. "You are right, he is laughing! Ah! how
funny he looks, and how happy I am!"
Both father and mother laughed together with content at the sight of that
infantile smile, vague and fleeting, like a faint ripple on the pure
water of some spring.
Amid this joy Marianne called the four others, who were bounding under
the young foliage around them: "Come, Rose! come, Ambroise! come, Blaise
and Denis! It's time now; come at once to have something to eat."
They hastened up and the snack was set out on a patch of soft grass.
Mathieu unhooked the basket which hung in front of the baby's little
vehicle; and Marianne, having drawn some slices of bread-and-butter from
it, proceeded to distribute them. Perfect silence ensued while all four
children began biting with hearty appetite, which it was a pleasure to
see. But all at once a scream arose. It came from Master Gervais, who was
vexed at not having been served first.
"Ah! yes, it's true I was forgetting you," said Marianne gayly; "you
shall have your share. There, open your mouth, you darling;" and, with an
easy, simple gesture, she unfastened her dress-body; and then, under the
sunlight which steeped her in golden radiance, in full view of the
far-spreading countryside, where all likewise was bare--the soil, the
trees, the plants, streaming with sap--having seated herself in the long
grass, where she almost disappeared amid the swarming growth of April's
germs, the babe on her breast eagerly sucked in her warm milk, even as
all the encompassing verdure was sucking life from the soil.
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