"Yes."
"I cannot buy a pair of oxen?"
"Yes."
"I cannot have myself drawn about in a cart, or punt a boat? Answer, if you please."
"Yes, my son."
"Then what further do I need for the management of a farm? Labourers I can hire. A wife?"
His father dared not say Yes.
"I will bring one!" Mathurin had reached the corner of the table and was now leaning upon it, the upper part of his body swaying and struggling to maintain its equilibrium. "One who has more heart than all of you put together! She knows that I shall get well. She has almost given me her promise to marry me as I am ... when I shall have persuaded her."
"Do not trust to what the girls tell you, my poor lad. It is only fathers and mothers who love and cherish those afflicted as you are.... You are ill this evening. See, your limbs are failing you. Come to bed, I will help you."
The cripple did not try to answer. His eyes closed, his head sank on to his shoulder; the crutches slipped from under the arms that stretched out as those of a drowning man seeking help. He would have fallen to the ground had not the farmer rushed forward to support him.