French peasant
French peasant
Thereis a country in Europe, called France. It lies east of the United States, and you must cross the Atlantic Ocean to get there. There are almostforty millions of people in France, and they have many splendid towns and cities. Paris is the capital of the country, and a charming city it is. It has as many inhabitants as the whole state of Massachusetts, and they have a thousand ways of amusing themselves.
The people who live in the country and labor on the lands, called peasants, are generally poor, and work very hard. If you ever travel in France, you will often see old women at work in the fields, carrying burthens of sticks, grass or hay. You will see them hoeing, digging, ploughing and harvesting.
A peasant woman in France gets but about three or four cents a day for her labor, and with this she can buy but few things to live upon. She usually goes barefoot, or wears heavy wooden shoes. She seldom eats meat, and often has no other breakfast than a glass of water and a few cherries, or grapes, or perhaps an apple. This is indeed poor fare.
In travelling in France, you will often see women in the fields taking care of the cows, and I have seen a woman spend the whole day in attending a single cow, which was grazing along the road-side. But while the woman watched the cow, she spun a little twine out of flax, by means of a stick, which she kept twirling between her fingers.
There are few countries in which the people, at large, are so happy as in our own country. The rich people fare very well in all countries, but the poor people are not happy in England, or France, or Germany, or any other country than ours. Should we not be thankful that a good Providence has cast our lot in America?