"You are a great comfort to me, Pierre," she would exclaim a score of times a day.
Once the lad had flushed with pleasure at overhearing her say to Monsieur le Curé:
"What should I do without my good son, my brave Pierre, to lean upon?"
Thus nearly two months sped past, and the moths within the cocoons that had been laid aside for breeding began to hatch out and force themselves through the small apertures they rent in their silken houses.
Marie viewed the first arrivals in consternation.
"They will fly all about the house and we shall lose them!" she cried. "What can we do with them?"
But Pierre only laughed.
"Have no fear, little sister," he answered reassuringly. "Josef says they will but flutter far enough to find their mates, and when their eggs are laid they will die."
"Alas," sighed the girl, "what a wee time they have to enjoy the glory of their new wings! Is it not sad, Mother?"
Madame Bretton regarded the child gravely for a moment; then she shook her head and smiled into her little daughter's troubled eyes.