The Story of a Farm Girl Page #3

"The Story of a Farm Girl" by Guy de Maupassant is a poignant short story that explores the life of a young farm girl, reflecting on her experiences, dreams, and the harsh realities of rural existence. Through her eyes, Maupassant delves into themes of love, longing, and the burdens of societal expectations. The narrative captures the essence of rural life in 19th-century France, highlighting the contrast between innocence and the often harsh truths of adulthood. Maupassant's keen observational skills and rich character development invite readers to empathize with the protagonist's struggles and aspirations.

								

raise her wages.

By degrees she almost monopolized the work and persuaded him to get
rid of one servant girl, who had become useless since she had taken to
working like two; she economized in the bread, oil and candles; in the
corn, which they gave to the chickens too extravagantly, and in the
fodder for the horses and cattle, which was rather wasted. She was as
miserly about her master's money as if it had been her own; and, by dint
of making good bargains, of getting high prices for all their produce,
and by baffling the peasants' tricks when they offered anything for
sale, he, at last, entrusted her with buying and selling everything,
with the direction of all the laborers, and with the purchase of
provisions necessary for the household; so that, in a short time, she
became indispensable to him. She kept such a strict eye on everything
about her that, under her direction, the farm prospered wonderfully, and
for five miles around people talked of “Master Vallin's servant,” and
the farmer himself said everywhere: “That girl is worth more than her
weight in gold.”

But time passed by, and her wages remained the same. Her hard work was
accepted as something that was due from every good servant, and as a
mere token of good will; and she began to think rather bitterly that if
the farmer could put fifty or a hundred crowns extra into the bank every
month, thanks to her, she was still only earning her two hundred francs
a year, neither more nor less; and so she made up her mind to ask for
an increase of wages. She went to see the schoolmaster three times about
it, but when she got there, she spoke about something else. She felt
a kind of modesty in asking for money, as if it were something
disgraceful; but, at last, one day, when the farmer was having breakfast
by himself in the kitchen, she said to him, with some embarrassment,
that she wished to speak to him particularly. He raised his head in
surprise, with both his hands on the table, holding his knife, with
its point in the air, in one, and a piece of bread in the other, and he
looked fixedly at, the girl, who felt uncomfortable under his gaze, but
asked for a week's holiday, so that she might get away, as she was not
very well. He acceded to her request immediately, and then added, in
some embarrassment himself:

“When you come back, I shall have something to say to you myself.”

PART III

The child was nearly eight months old, and she did not recognize it. It
had grown rosy and chubby all over, like a little roll of fat. She threw
herself on it, as if it had been some prey, and kissed it so violently
that it began to scream with terror; and then she began to cry herself,
because it did not know her, and stretched out its arms to its nurse as
soon as it saw her. But the next day it began to know her, and laughed
when it saw her, and she took it into the fields, and ran about
excitedly with it, and sat down under the shade of the trees; and
then, for the first time in her life, she opened her heart to somebody,
although he could not understand her, and told him her troubles; how
hard her work was, her anxieties and her hopes, and she quite tired the
child with the violence of her caresses.

She took the greatest pleasure in handling it, in washing and dressing
it, for it seemed to her that all this was the confirmation of her
maternity; and she would look at it, almost feeling surprised 'that it
was hers, and would say to herself in a low voice as she danced it in
her arms: “It is my baby, it's my baby.”

She cried all the way home as she returned to the farm and had scarcely
got in before her master called her into his room; and she went, feeling
astonished and nervous, without knowing why.

“Sit down there,” he said. She sat down, and for some moments they
remained side by side, in some embarrassment, with their arms hanging at
their sides, as if they did not know what to do with them, and looking
each other in the face, after the manner of peasants.

The farmer, a stout, jovial, obstinate man of forty-five, who had lost
two wives, evidently felt embarrassed, which was very unusual with
him; but, at last, he made up his mind, and began to speak vaguely,
hesitating a little, and looking out of the window as he talked. “How is
it, Rose,” he said, “that you have never thought of settling in life?”
 She grew as pale as death, and, seeing that she gave him no answer, he
went on: “You are a good, steady, active and economical girl; and a wife
like you would make a man's fortune.”

She did not move, but looked frightened; she did not even try to
comprehend his meaning, for her thoughts were in a whirl, as if at the
approach of some great danger; so, after waiting for a few seconds, he
went on: “You see, a farm without a mistress can never succeed, even
with a servant like you.” Then he stopped, for he did not know what else
to say, and Rose looked at him with the air of a person who thinks that
he is face to face with a murderer and ready to flee at the slightest
movement he may make; but, after waiting for about five minutes, he
asked her: “Well, will it suit you?” “Will what suit me, master?” And he
said quickly: “Why, to marry me, by Heaven!”

She jumped up, but fell back on her chair, as if she had been struck,
and there she remained motionless, like a person who is overwhelmed
by some great misfortune. At last the farmer grew impatient and said:
“Come, what more do you want?” She looked at him, almost in terror, then
suddenly the tears came into her eyes and she said twice in a choking
voice: “I cannot, I cannot!” “Why not?” he asked. “Come, don't be silly;
I will give you until tomorrow to think it over.”

And he hurried out of the room, very glad to have got through with the
matter, which had troubled him a good deal, for he had no doubt that
she would the next morning accept a proposal which she could never have
expected and which would be a capital bargain for him, as he thus bound
a woman to his interests who would certainly bring him more than if she
had the best dowry in the district.

Neither could there be any scruples about an unequal match between them,
for in the country every one is very nearly equal; the farmer works
with his laborers, who frequently become masters in their turn, and the
female servants constantly become the mistresses of the establishments
without its making any change in their life or habits.

Rose did not go to bed that night. She threw herself, dressed as she
was, on her bed, and she had not even the strength to cry left in her,
she was so thoroughly dumfounded. She remained quite inert, scarcely
knowing that she had a body, and without being at all able to collect
her thoughts, though, at moments, she remembered something of what had
happened, and then she was frightened at the idea of what might happen.
Her terror increased, and every time the great kitchen clock struck the
hour she broke out in a perspiration from grief. She became bewildered,
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