Marie Claire

Marie Claire: is another one of the free "page-turning" books furnished us by Browzer Books.

Back in its day of publication this was all the rage in England and France for six long years.

Here is a teaser.. My father often took us to a place where there were men who drank wine. He used to put me on a table among the glasses, and make me sing.

The men would laugh and kiss me, and try and make me drink wine. It was always dark when we went home. My father took long steps, and rocked himself as he walked. He nearly tumbled down lots of times.

Sometimes he would begin to cry and say that his house had been stolen. Then my sister used to scream. It was always she who used to find the house.

One morning la mère Colas got angry with us and told us that we were children of misfortune, and that she would not feed us any longer. She said we could go and look for our father, who had gone away nobody knew where.

When her anger had passed she gave us our breakfasts as usual, but a few days afterwards we were put into père Chicon's cart.

The cart was full of straw and bags of corn. I was tucked away behind in a little hollow between the sacks. The cart tipped down at the back, and every jolt made me slip on the straw.