Rimbaud's girl

Her money is not only saved by saving living expenses, but also the change saved by going out to buy things. She is petite and cute, sweet-mouthed, and can come to trouble, and often people can wipe her change. tens of francs.

However, the bulk of her personal money was obtained from Uncle Felix.

Uncle Felix was a year older than Mrs. Rimbaud. When he was in the army, he served in the African army. His complexion was so dark that the neighbors called him "African".Uncle Felix is ​​not married, and after inheriting the family business, he has nothing to do all day long.

When Vitaly was 8 years old, she didn't know that she had a rich uncle.Mrs. Rimbaud decided to send her to school, so Uncle Felix specially came from the village of Roche, 50 kilometers away from Charleville, and generously gave Mrs. Rimbaud 500 francs to pay Vitaly's tuition and accommodation fees. , and promised to give Vitaly 500 francs for tuition and accommodation every year in the future.

Since her uncle paid for it, Vitaly would go back to Luoshi Village to visit her uncle during her holidays.Uncle Felix liked the well-behaved and cute niece, but he didn't particularly like the two nephews.Mrs. Rimbaud didn't like her brother very much, and thought he was a frivolous guy.

But this has nothing to do with Vitaly.For 500 francs a year, she is willing to accompany her uncle.Every time my uncle would give her some pocket money, the amount varied, and sometimes he could give her dozens of francs at a time.

There is plenty of bread at home. Every morning, Mrs. Rimbaud will give Vitaly some change and ask her to go to the bakery on the corner to buy bread for the day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each person eats 6 per person per day. You can't buy more than one bun.During the war, the price of wheat skyrocketed, and the flour used to make bread was mainly wheat flour, so the price of bread also skyrocketed. Originally, the Rimbauds would not have to count heads to eat bread.

There is an oven at home, but because of the limited purchase of flour, it is difficult to buy it even if you have money. It has been a long time since I made my own bread.

Mrs. Rimbaud doesn't have to go out to work. Her job is to take care of her four children.When there was no war, the children had to go to school, and her two daughters were in a boarding monastery girls' school, and they came home only after holidays. Her main focus of work was to take care of her two sons.

She moved several times so that Arthur could go to school, and Vitaly remembered always moving, packing, and unpacking.

In the middle and late 19th century, there were no convenient and fast moving companies. They all packed by themselves and hired cars to move furniture and luggage.Mrs. Rimbaud was a capable woman, but also a prim woman, exhausted by the constant moving and impatient with the children.

Two boys running away from home one after another bored her to death.On the one hand, she was very angry at the recklessness and rebellion of her sons, and on the other hand, she was worried about their safety.As a result, the constraints on the daughters became more and more stringent, and they never forgot to educate them, asking them to be careful in their words and deeds, and to be good girls.

In the past, if Vitaly wanted to go to the village of Roche, she could take a public carriage. The fare was very cheap, and people could sit on the roof, as long as two centimes; Chinese soldiers will not have a good attitude towards the people of the defeated country.Mrs. Rimbaud did not let the children go out at will, fearing that they would encounter those brutal Prussian soldiers.

Vitaly could only write to her uncle, saying that they were in the city and couldn’t buy a lot of food, and they couldn’t get enough to eat every day. She wanted to ask her uncle if he could send them a few chickens, a few bags of flour, and if there was any sausage. Ask him to send some over.She wrote down all the food that she thought of that the husband's house in Luoshi Village might have.She is a child, so she doesn't need to think about how much food reserves her uncle's family has. If uncle is capable, of course he will consider how much food he can give them.

Fortunately, the war did not affect the normal operation of the post office. She sent the letter the day before yesterday, and today her uncle came to Charleville and brought some food.

Mrs. Rimbaud's relationship with her brother was neither bad nor bad, and she would not hypocritically refuse to accept the urgently needed food from his brother.

After sending Vitaly away, Felix said to Mrs. Rimbaud, "The children are not full. You should write to me earlier."

"I can't help it. I have to keep my daily living expenses within 5 francs." Mrs. Rimbaud looked tired.

"Five francs? Is it too little? Is it enough to buy bread?" Felix frowned. "I can't bring a lot of food at once. You can make some bread for the children with this bag of flour. I'll come back in a few days." trip."

Mrs. Rimbaud nodded, got up and put the whole bag of flour, some sausages, some duck legs, a cloth bag of vegetables, and a large piece of beef into the kitchen cupboard.

In the evening, I stayed with Felix for dinner. I made delicious croissants, cream crepes, and onion puff pastry soup. The main course was roasted duck legs. All 4 children were full.

The Rimbauds had no spare room for guests, Mrs. Rimbaud lived in the master bedroom, the boys each had their own room, and Vitaly and Isabel shared a room, so either Frederick would vacate the room or he would have to Yes-->>

Ser vacated the room, and usually it was the eldest son Frederick who vacated the room.

Uncle Felix was a dull man, and Arthur didn't like his uncle very much, he thought his uncle was uneducated and vulgar.

Vitaly is different. She thinks that her uncle is not a teacher, so he doesn’t need to have a great level of knowledge. As long as he really loves his nephew, he is a good uncle and a good person.

Vitaly changed uncle's sheets and quilts into clean sheets, and lit a few candles on the candlesticks.

"My dear girl," cried Felix as usual, "let me see you."

He looked at Vitaly: too thin, not tall, not yet developed.

"You should eat more," he said dissatisfied, "If your mother won't let you eat more, you can buy something delicious yourself." He took out an embroidered money bag and muttered, "You My mother is too partial to Arthur, that bastard! Here, here are 25 gold coins, which is your tuition fee for this year. I told your mother, if you don’t go to school, I won’t give her any money this year. When will she send it to you? Go to the convent, and I'll give her the money any time. You take the money first, and when you're hungry, go and buy yourself some bread, or go to the restaurant—let Frederick take you to the restaurant."

"Thank you, Uncle." When the uncle offered money, of course he would accept it without hesitation. 25 gold coins, that is the "Napoleon" gold coin with a face value of 20 francs.Uncle Felix probably has no idea about money, and he doesn't seem to care that Vitaly suddenly holds a "huge sum"—500 francs is quite an astonishingly huge sum for a 12-year-old child.

She also felt that she should eat more.Arthur sometimes laughed at her for being a "little guy", but he wasn't tall either!

With money in hand, don't panic.No matter what age, money is the truth.

At that time, the franc was a bimetallic coin of gold and silver, which contained gold, which kept its value quite well. The French economy was stable, and prices had not risen too much in the past few decades. Compared with the Napoleon era 70 years ago, the purchasing power was not much different, that is, Because Ardennes is a war zone, prices have only risen alarmingly in the past year. When the negotiations on war compensation are over, the government should stabilize prices.

Vitaly thought that the period of high prices should not be too long. At most, by the end of the year, prices should drop. As long as she survives this year smoothly, she should be able to go back to the monastery boarding school next year.

That's not to say how much she liked the convent girls' school.As we all know, the nuns are very strict. They read and recite the Bible every day, teach the girls how to do needlework, cooking skills, and reading books are not encouraged, and they are not allowed to read newspapers. In short, the purpose is to educate the " A good wife and mother".

Mrs. Rimbaud's education level is not high, that is, the level of elementary school graduates in later generations. The education level is enough to write letters, read newspapers, and calculate expenses. She can only listen to the teachers' comments on the children's studies.She didn't have the concept of "everything is inferior but studies are high", but Arthur was unanimously praised by the teachers of Charleville College. This is what she can understand as an "excellent child".

She doesn't care much about the education of her daughters, she just thinks that they will be similar to her in the future.

As for Vitaly, she wanted to go to Paris to study at a university—under the rule of Napoleon III, the Sorbonne University had begun to enroll girls.

Arthur said disdainfully: "If you want to learn knowledge, you don't have to go to college." The rebellious child was very arrogant, "Just read the book I gave you."

Vitaly glanced at him, "Your book has already been sold to me, it is no longer 'your book'." Last time he sneaked away and had no money, so he could only sell books. The big buyer Vitaly sent him The schoolbag was round, and a total of 50 francs were given to him.

Arthur is kind, "Okay, it's 'your books' already. Did you read those books when I wasn't home?"

"Read some." Vitaly was tired, "I don't have much time to read, my mother makes me do housework all day long."

"Look at night."

"Do you think I'm you?" She glared at him angrily. "Mom allowed you to light a lot of candles to read at night, but I only have one candle. The light is not bright enough for me to read."

Mother is very partial to Arthur, which is something she cannot change.

"I don't believe it. You have money yourself, and you must have bought a lot of candles."

When it comes to buying candles, she is also very distressed. Obviously this should be a material provided by the adults, but she has to use her small treasury to pay for it.

She was very angry: "Our father is not dead yet, tell me, should we go to him and ask him to settle the child support payments for so many years?"

Arthur was taken aback by his younger sister's thoughts at this moment, "Go to find father?"