Page 637 - les-miserables

the plateau.
It was necessary to fetch it from a considerable distance;
the end of the village towards Gagny drew its water from
the magnificent ponds which exist in the woods there. The
other end, which surrounds the church and which lies in
the direction of Chelles, found drinking-water only at a lit-
tle spring half-way down the slope, near the road to Chelles,
about a quarter of an hour from Montfermeil.
Thus each household found it hard work to keep sup-
plied with water. The large houses, the aristocracy, of which
the Thenardier tavern formed a part, paid half a farthing
a bucketful to a man who made a business of it, and who
earned about eight sous a day in his enterprise of supplying
Montfermeil with water; but this good man only worked
until seven o’clock in the evening in summer, and five in
winter; and night once come and the shutters on the ground
floor once closed, he who had no water to drink went to
fetch it for himself or did without it.
This constituted the terror of the poor creature whom
the reader has probably not forgotten,—little Cosette. It
will be remembered that Cosette was useful to the Thenar-
diers in two ways: they made the mother pay them, and they
made the child serve them. So when the mother ceased to
pay altogether, the reason for which we have read in pre-
ceding chapters, the Thenardiers kept Cosette. She took the
place of a servant in their house. In this capacity she it was
who ran to fetch water when it was required. So the child,
who was greatly terrified at the idea of going to the spring
at night, took great care that water should never be lacking

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