FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



sent a messenger down the street after his two sons, and im- 

 mediately began picking flowers to give me. I told him that I 

 did not know what I should do with them, but he cut an 

 immense armful and carried it out and put it in our automobile. 

 He urged me to come into the little stone cottage and have a 

 glass of wine with him. Then he insisted on my taking a photo- 

 graph of the whole family, including his wife and his two sons. 

 Mme. Gautier was in her working clothes and protested, but 

 was overruled. Two big, manly, fine-looking sons came hurriedly 

 in, and two or three neighbors, including the butcher next door, 

 joined the group. We all had some more wine, and Gautier 

 showed me a diploma of Officier de I'Ordre de Merite Agricole 

 that had been given him by the President of France since my 

 last visit. I knew how highly the decoration of Chevalier of 

 this Order is prized by some of my colleagues in America, 

 and to find this apparently simple peasant with such a decora- 

 tion was a surprise. I photographed the group, took some shares 

 in a raffle for a bicycle for the benefit of a church to which one 

 of the sons belonged, refused to take shares in a raffle for another 

 church in which the butcher was interested, and left with hearty 

 handshakes all round. 



Fermaud told me that an injurious insect was never allowed 

 to live on Gautier's place, and that his skill with flowers was 

 almost uncanny. His decoration by the government was highly 

 deserved. 



This episode proved to me again what I had already believed: 

 that French democracy is even more intense than our own. And 

 it also seems to indicate that the giving of decorations, when 

 properly done, as it appears to be in France, is something that 

 we really miss, and perhaps need, in the United States. 



The coincidence of the name with that of the famous poet 

 and novelist seems to be simply a coincidence, as this modern 



[lOo] 



