Explore "The Wooden Shoes" by Guy De Maupassant on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The old priest was sputtering out the last words of his sermon over the white caps of the peasant women, and the rough or pomatumed heads of the men. The large baskets of the farmer's wives who had come from a distance to attend mass, were on the ground beside them, and the heavy heat of a July day caused them all to exhale a smell like that of cattle, or of a flock of sheep, and the cocks could be heard crowing through the large west door, which was wide open, as well as the lowing of the cows in a neighboring field. "As God wishes. Amen! " the priest said. Then he ceased, opened a book, and, as he did every week, he began to give notice of all the small parish events for the following week.
He was an old man with white hair who had been in the parish for over forty years, and from the pulpit he was in the habit of discoursing familiarly to them all, and so he went on: "I recommend Desire Vallin, who is very ill, to your prayers, and also la Paumelle, who is not recovering from her confinement satisfactorily."