He liked to be cheered.

"Applaud! applaud!" he said at the end of his reading, "the clapping of your hands will be heard at Agen." After the recitation an interesting conversation took place.

Jasmin was asked how it was that he first began to write poetry; for every one likes to know the beginnings of self-culture.

He thereupon entered into a brief history of his life; how he had been born poor; how his grandfather had died at the hospital; and how he had been brought up by charity.

He described his limited education and his admission to the barber's shop; his reading of Florian; his determination to do something of a similar kind; his first efforts, his progress, and eventually his success.