Crossing the bread, going to mass, attending Easter communion: religion, like hygiene, gave them a sense of dignity. They dressed in their Sunday best, sang the Credo together with the wealthy landowners and put a few coins in the collection plate. My father was a choir boy and he liked to accompany the priest when he was called in to administer the last rites. The men took off their hats as they walked past.

22The children always had worms. To get rid of them, a small pouch filled with garlic was sewn into the inside of their shirts, near their navel. In winter their ears were stuffed with cotton wool. When I read Proust or Mauriac, I cannot believe they are writing about the time when my father was a child. In his case it was more like the Middle Ages.

He had to walk two kilometres to get to school. Every Monday the teacher inspected their fingernails and the front of their vest, and checked their hair for lice. He was a harsh man, rapped the boys’ fingers with an iron ruler, he was respected. Some of his pupils ended up among the best in their canton to have passed their primary certificate; one or two even made it to teachers’ training college. My father missed class when he had to harvest the apples, tie the straw and hay into sheaves, and sow and reap whatever was in season. When he and his elder brother went back to school, the master would yell: ‘So your parents want you to remain as ignorant as they are!’ He managed to learn how to read and write properly. He liked learning. (In those days it was just ‘learning’, like ‘eating’ or ‘drinking’.) He liked drawing too: heads, or sometimes animals. At the age of twelve, he was due to take the primary certificate. My grandfather took him out of school and got him a job on the same farm as him. He could no longer be fed without paying his way. ‘We didn’t even think about it, it was the same for everyone.’

My father’s school reader was called Le Tour de la France par Deux Enfants. It is full of odd sentences, for instance:23

One should learn always to be content with one’s lot (p. 186 of the 326th edition).

Charity towards the poor is the most precious thing in the world (p. 11).

A family blessed with affection possesses the greatest riches of all (p. 260).

The most gratifying thing about wealth is that it helps alleviate the poverty of others (p. 130).

Its moral recommendations for poor children were as follows:

An industrious man never wastes a single minute and at the end of the day he discovers that every hour has brought him something new. On the other hand, an idle man is always finding excuses to put off his work; he falls asleep and lets his attention wander, not only in bed but also at mealtimes and during conversation. The day draws to an end and he finds he has achieved nothing. The months and years go by, old age is suddenly upon him, and still he has achieved nothing.