VI.
The three children left the town, and crossing the bridge, reached the left bank of the Gave. They passed the mill of M. de Laffite and entered the Chalêt, gathering here and there sticks for their little fagots. They walked down the river's course, the delicate child following at some distance her stronger companions. Less fortunate than they, she had not yet found any thing, and her apron was empty, while her sister and Jeanne had begun to load themselves with twigs and chips.
Clad in a black gown, well worn and patched, her pale countenance inclosed in the fold of the capulet which fell over her shoulders, and her feet protected by a large pair of sabots, she wore an air of grace and rustic innocence which appealed more to the heart than to the senses. She was still quite small for her age. Although her childish features had been touched by the sun, they had not lost their natural delicacy. Her fine black hair scarcely appeared from beneath her kerchief. Her brow, open to the air, was free from any line or wrinkle. Under her arching eyebrows, her eyes of brown, in her softer than blue, had a deep and tranquil beauty whose clearness no evil passion had ever disturbed. Hers was the "single" eye of which the Gospel speaks. Her mouth, wonderfully expressive, revealed the habitual tenderness of her soul and pity for every kind of suffering. Her whole appearance, while it pleased, also possessed that extraordinary power of attraction exerted by lofty minds. And what was it that gave this secret power to a child so poor, so ignorant, clothed in tatters? It was the greatest and rarest of possessions, the majesty of innocence.
We have not yet told her name. She had for her patron a great and holy doctor of the church, whose genius was especially sheltered under the protection of the Mother of God, the author of the Memorare, the illustrious St. Bernard. Following a fashion which has its charms, his great name, given to this humble peasant, had taken a childish and rustic form. The little maid bore a title as gracious and as pretty as herself. She was called Bernadette.
She followed her sister and companion through the fields that belong to the mill, and sought, but vainly, among the grass and shrubbery for some bits of wood to warm their family hearth. So Ruth or Noemi might have appeared, going to glean in the harvest-fields of Booz.