To be sure I gave him some oysters and some periwinkles! . . . But he was never as sad as you are.
Why no, indeed!"
And Mother Le Gannec told me some stories about Lirat who stayed with her a whole autumn.
"And he was so lively and so intrepid! . . . He would go out in the rain 'to take some views.' It did not hurt him a bit. He would come back drenched to the bones but always gay, always singing! . . . You ought to have seen that fellow eat! Ah, he could swallow the sea in the morning!"
Sometimes, to distract me, she told me her misfortunes, simply, without complaining, repeating with sublime resignation:
"Whatever the good Lord wishes, we must wish also. To cry over it all the time won't help matters a bit."
And in a musical voice which all Bretons possess, she used to say:
"Le Gannec was the best fisherman in Ploch and the most daring seaman on the entire coast. There was none whose fishing boat was better equipped, none who better knew reefs abounding with fish. Whenever a fishing boat dared out in stormy weather it was sure be the Marie Joseph. Everybody held him in high esteem not only because he was courageous but because his conduct was beyond reproach and worthy. He shunned the cabarets like a pest, detested drunkards, and it was an honor to be of the same mind as he was. I must also tell you that he was the commander of a life boat. We had two boys, friend Mintie, strong, well-built and able, one was eighteen years old and the other twenty, and the father expected both to be brave seamen as he was. . . . Ah! If you had only seen my two handsome boys, friend Mintié! Things were coming along nicely, in fact so nicely
