Mathieu controlled
the agricultural part of the enterprise, ever seeking improved methods
for drawing from the earth all the life that slumbered within it. And
Marianne watched over the farmyard, the dairy, the poultry, and showed
herself a first-class accountant, keeping the books, and receiving and
paying money. And thus, in spite of recurring worries, strokes of bad
luck and inevitable mistakes, fortune smiled on them athwart all worries
and losses, so brave and sensible did they prove in their incessant daily
struggle.
Apart, too, from the new buildings, the estate was increased by
five-and-seventy acres of woodland, and five-and-seventy acres of sandy
sloping soil. Mathieu's battle with those sandy slopes became yet keener,
more and more heroic as his field of action expanded; but he ended by
conquering, by fertilizing them yet more each season, thanks to the
fructifying springs which he directed through them upon every side. And
in the same way he cut broad roads through the new woods which he
purchased on the plateau, in order to increase the means of communication
and carry into effect his idea of using the clearings as pasture for his
cattle, pending the time when he might largely devote himself to
stock-raising.
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