After the stables and coachhouses came the piggery, the rabbit hutches, and finally an immense poultry-yard divided into a thousand compartments, and sheltering a whole horde of poultry of all sorts; fowls of all kinds and of all breeds, geese, guineafowl, pigeons, ducks, and what all besides. What wasn't there in that prodigious poultry-yard? 7
Mother Etienne spent most of her time there, for the smaller and more delicate the creatures the more interest and care she gave them.
"The weak need so much protection," this excellent woman would say, and she was right.
So for the baby ducks her tenderness was limitless. What dangers had to be avoided to raise successfully all these tiny folks!
Did a pig escape? Immediately danger threatened the 8 poultry-yard. For a pig has terrible teeth and he doesn't care what he eats—he would as soon crunch a little duckling as a carrot. So she had to watch every minute, every second even. For besides, in spite of the vigilance of "Labrie," the faithful watchdog, sometimes rats would suck the blood of the young pigeons. Once even a whole litter of rabbits was destroyed that way.
To dispose of the products of her farm, Mother Etienne drove twice a week to market in her market-cart drawn by Coco.
She was famed for the best vegetables, the purest and creamiest milk; in short, the eggs she sold were the freshest, the poultry and rabbits the tenderest and most juicy to be had. 9 As soon as she and Coco came trotting into the market there was a rush to get to her first.