Since the beginning of the year as
many had died at Rougemont as had arrived there, and the mayor had
declared that far too many were dying, and that the village would end by
getting a bad reputation. One thing was certain, La Couillard would be
the very first to receive a visit from the gendarmes if she didn't so
arrange matters as to keep at least one nursling alive every now and
then.
"Ah? that Couillard!" added the nurse-agent. "Just fancy, my dear, I took
her a child, a perfect little angel--the boy of a very pretty young
person who was stopping at Madame Bourdieu's. She paid four hundred
francs to have him brought up until his first communion, and he lived
just five days! Really now, that wasn't long enough! La Couillard need
not have been so hasty. It put me in such a temper! I asked her if she
wanted to dishonor me. What will ruin me is my good heart. I don't know
how to refuse when folks ask me to do them a service. And God in Heaven
knows how fond I am of children! I've always lived among them, and in
future, if anybody who's a friend of mine gives me a child to put out to
nurse, I shall say: 'We won't take the little one to La Couillard, for it
would be tempting Providence.
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