Explore "The Wooden Shoes" by Guy De Maupassant on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The old priest was mumbling the last words of his sermon over the white caps of the peasant women, and the rough or greasy heads of the men. The large baskets of the farmers' 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 open door, as well as the lowing of the cows in a neighbouring field. From time to time a breath of wind, charged with the perfume of the fields, swept in through the main entrance, fluttered the ribbons in the women's hats, and made the little yellow candle flames on the altar tremble.
"As God wishes. Amen! " the priest said. Then he ceased, opened a book, and, as he did every week, began to give notice to his flock 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 was in the habit of discoursing familiarly to them all; so he went on: "I recommend Désiré Vallin, who is very ill, to your prayers, and also La Paumelle, who is recovering very slowly from her confinement."