“Cut myself, sir,” replied the blind man, with a pleasant shade of confidence; “I formerly was a woodsawyer, and the saw knows me well; and then one learns everything—I go to school, indeed. They put a pile of wood at my left side, my saw and saw horse before me, a stick that is to be sawed in three; I take a thread, I cut it the size of the third of the stick—this is the measure. Every place I saw, I try it, and so it goes on till now there is nothing burned or drunk in the village without calling upon me.”
“Without mentioning,” added Mr. Desgranges, “that he is a commissioner.”
“A commissioner!” said the young man, still more surprised.
“Yes, sir, when there is an errand to be done at Melun, I put my little girl on my back, and then off I go. She sees for me, I walk for her; those who meet me, say, 'Here is a gentleman who carries his eyes very high;' to which I answer, 'that is so I may see the farther.' And then at night I have twenty sous more to bring home.”
“But are you not afraid of stumbling against the stones?”
“I lift my feet pretty high; and then I am used to it; I come from Noiesemont here all alone.”
“All alone! how do you find your way?”
“I find the course of the wind as I leave home, and this takes the place of the sun with me.”
“But the holes?”
“I know them all.”