All the three have forsaken him.
The lips of the young girls, and even those of the children, have become
scoffing.
"Ah, Father Jean! Do you live like the grasshoppers? Nobody ever sees you
eat, Father Jean! Father Jean lives on cold water. The man who grows old
becomes a child again!
"What will you put into your beautiful vase, if you ever make it, silly
old fellow? It will not hold even a drop of water from your well. Go and
paint the hen-coops and make water-jugs!"
Jean silently shakes his head, and only replies to all these railleries by
a kindly smile.
He is good to animals, and he shares his dry bread with the poor.
It is true that he eats scarcely anything, but he does not suffer in
consequence. He is very thin, but his flesh is all the more sound and
wholesome. Under the arch of his eyebrows his old eyes, heedful of the
world, continue to sparkle with the clearness of the spring which reflects
the light.