03. Severy herdsman

Having always heard my mother complain of the trials of poverty, the idea came to me that I might do something to help her financially; and I suggested to her that I herd the cows of Mont du Lac for the summer. At first I was ridiculed, because of my physical weakness; but as I persisted in the idea, in the end she agreed. It was a settled thing. There was I, a herder on the pastures of Pont. What follows shows that my idea had been a good one.

First of all, it was a great pleasure to me to pass the summer on the different hills, amongst the trees and shrubs amidst wild nature, liberated from all yoke of man. Then, I loved my animals as if they had been my own. In the beginning I made many trips to make sure they were all in their appointed grazing grounds. This activity and the air of the mountains, gave me a formidable appetite, and my body was building up in proportion.

There everything pleased me. I learned to recognize the habits of the different birds; and I noted how each kind of tree developed. Each time I passed over familiar ground, I found new charms.

Sometimes the sun was very hot; but we could find shelter in the shade. When it was cold, we made a fire. When it rained, we find shelter under the fir trees; but if we had to be wet, we paid little attention. We were four herders in all -- sufficient company. Sometimes we put our lunches together, sometimes not. Always our nourishment was simple, and that was precisely what was needed. And, in the short period of a summer, I became a new person.

My grandmother Simeon [Simone] found me a place at Severy , at Ferdinand Terpolet's , to watch the cows until All-Saints Day.

There also I passed happy days.

That family had nothing outside of human kindness. It was a man and a woman happy when all went well, loving their children, and loved by them. All was so natural; but at the same time it was what I had never found in the home of my grandfather. There is, with certain people, an amiability of character, which embellishes all their surroundings; with others there is a malice which destroys all beauty.

To show one trait of character, when they found out that I could not eat the pieces of kohlrabi i in the soup, they would cut it in four, and before serving the soup, they removed it from the kettle.

I was treated as if I were their son; and I always felt at ease there, and as long as I lived in Switzerland, I always entered that house with pleasure. A notre dèpart de Pampigny c'est dans cette maison que j'ai passé la dernière nuit. When we left Pampigny I spent the last night at that house. [trans. Cl Apr 15, 2003]

To return to the time when I was a herder at Mr. Terpolet's . My days were spent peacefully with my beasts. In the evening, after supper, I heard Julie with her lesson. Then we all worked on the flax, throwing the waste into the fire. Soon neighbors arrived. Jean Seillon recounted what he had seen in his foreign travels. The great Gaudin made comments upon the events of the times. Often the conversation turned to tragic stories. At such times the debris had transformed the fiery coals to forms so varied, that one saw in them what he liked.

Julie and I saw castles; and drowsiness making itself felt, we went to sleep dreaming. When we were alone we read Arabian Nights, and always we laughed. In fact, all was so varied, so a propos, that the time passed without our perceiving it.

Everything is new to the child; all the conversations to which I listened were instructive to me. Then, later, we would often go to the mill at Severy, to the Bovay. There we would press pears for cider, the nuts to make oil; then the hemp that we had stripped was put under the beater, to crush out the marrow. We dried the prunes, then the pears. In fact, each new task carries with it a special charm.

At last All-Saints Day arrived [Nov 1], accompanied by rain and wind, --with that harsh cold, that humidity which penetrates into the houses; and the clouds which announce winter. I had to return to my snowy valley to commence the school term. I already spoke the patois of Severy. My summer on the mountains had not given me much taste for the discipline of a school. At the same time, I soon became attached to it, in seeing the maps of geography which had been acquired. The map of Switzerland by Keller, which was perhaps four feet from east to west, was to me a marvel! I could see the outlines of each canton; and in a short time I had it in my head in all its detail. But at the same time, this gave me the desire to see all this country, especially the valleys of the Alps. I was able to satisfy this desire only in part, in my youth; but upon my return to Switzerland, I saw much of the land of my birth, and the excursions which I made with my children have left tender memories. For this I am grateful to God, for I had always held a vague desire to see the spots noted for their natural beauty, or famous because of the events which there took place. I now have school ahead of me, and this finishes my chapter.