Fortune, who owed him some compensations, gave him _gratis pro Deo_, a half dozen superb workers--six big boys, whom his wife presented him with, one annually, as regularly as clock-work.

Every year, nine months, to a day, after the _fete_ of Vergaville, Claudine (otherwise known as Glaudine) presented one for baptism.

At last she died after the sixth, from eating four huge pieces of _quiche_ before her churching.

Big Peter did not marry again, having concluded that he had workers enough, and he continued to add to his fortune nicely.

But, as standing jokes last a long time in villages, the miller's comrades still spoke to him about those famous millions which he did not bring back from America, and Big Peter grew very red under his flour, just as he used to in his earlier days.
On the 4th of September, then, he married his second son to a good big woman of Altroff, who had fat and blazing cheeks: this being a kind of beauty much affected in the country.