No doubt the father made this fence, the spade, the pitchfork, and even the wheelbarrow we see in the picture, while the mother, we are sure, made all their clothes except the wooden shoes. Perhaps the father made them.
In those days the mothers could not go down to the store to buy the goods for their clothes as we do now. Instead they spun thread out of flax or wool, and then wove it into cloth on a great loom something like the small looms we use in school to make rugs and hammocks. This they usually did during the winter when there was less work to do, for there were so many more things that had to be done during the summer than during the winter.
In summer they had to take care of the fruit just as our mothers do. But they did not know anything about canning it,—they would cook it a long time and make preserves or else they would dry it. They dried most of their fruit, making it just like the dried apples, peaches, and apricots we buy at the store.
In France, where this picture was painted, the women worked out in the fields just like the men. So you see how very busy they must have been. And yet they always found time to love and care for their little children.
We do not know even the name of this baby, or of his mother or father. The artist, Millet, thought that of no importance at all. He did not even care to show us their faces, any more than he would care to show us the buttons on their clothes. The important thing is the love and tenderness of this mother and father as they stop their work to guide, help, and encourage their baby in taking his first step. All his life the baby will find them never too tired or weary to help him when he needs it most.
Peasants like these, we know, lived in France, and as a rule they were very poor, although the two in our picture seem thrifty and comfortable. The trees, even the grass growing up beside the fence, seem sturdy and strong like the peasants to whom they belong.
We feel the strength of the father's extended arms, so ready and able to protect this baby. The mother, too, will do her share. Even the trees seem to bend toward these three as if to assure them of their protection.
This is a simple, homelike picture, whose chief beauty lies in its strong appeal to our feeling of sympathy with, and interest in, these honest country people.
Questions to help the pupil understand the picture. What has the man been doing? With what did he dig the potatoes? Where will he put them? Why does he not put them in the cellar? How will he keep them all winter? How will he bury them? Who made these peasants' clothes? the wheelbarrow, the spade, and the pitchfork? Why did they not buy them? How did the mother make the cloth for their clothes? When did she do this? What must she do during the summer? How did they keep their fruit? Why do you think they are a happy family?
The story of the artist. Jean François Millet was the son of French peasants who must have been very much like the father and mother in this picture. But a picture of Millet's boyhood would not be complete unless it included his grandmother. You see, that dear old lady rocked him to sleep, played with him, and kept him happy all day long while his mother, like all French peasants, worked out in the fields with his father.