“Finish all the window-frames and doors on the ground floor, and put up shutters. I suppose there is no chance of getting any glass.”
“Linen will have to do, or canvas, to begin with. We must divide up the day’s work. I shall take all the household work and the garden.”
“What about seeds?”
“I have a whole boxful of seeds in that case. The Casteners have promised to give me potatoes to plant, also young lettuces and cabbages. If Etienne ploughs up part of the meadow we can put potatoes in there, and perhaps a little corn and some winter roots. I am going to keep a few chickens, and later on a cow and a pig.”
“You will be busy.”
Manon was looking at the unglazed window-frame.
“I wish we could get some of that oiled linen that the English have. The other day, when Monsieur Durand and I drove from Rosières, we passed what you call a dump.”
Brent’s eyes brightened.
“What sort of a dump?”
“Sheds, and great piles of stores, boxes under tarpaulins, and an English soldier lying on a bench asleep. It is close to the railway line. I wonder if the English are selling their stores?”