“‘You are going to a good country,’ said my brother. ‘During the Revolution my family was ruined. I took refuge in Franche-Comté at first, and there I lived for some time by the toil of my hands. My will was good. I found plenty to occupy me. One has only to choose. There are paper mills, tanneries, distilleries, oil factories, watch factories on a large scale, steel mills, copper works, twenty iron foundries at least, four of which, situated at Lods, at Châtillon, at Audincourt, and at Beure, are tolerably large.’ “I think I am not mistaken in saying that those are the names which my brother mentioned. Then he interrupted himself and addressed me:— “‘Have we not some relatives in those parts, my dear sister?’ “I replied,— “‘We did have some; among others, M. de Lucenet, who was captain of the gates at Pontarlier under the old régime.’ “‘Yes,’ resumed my brother; ‘but in ’93, one had no longer any relatives, one had only one’s arms. I worked. They have, in the country of Pontarlier, whither you are going, Monsieur Valjean, a truly patriarchal and truly charming industry, my sister. It is their cheese-dairies, which they call _fruitières_.’ “Then my brother, while urging the man to eat, explained to him, with great minuteness, what these _fruitières_ of Pontarlier were; that they were divided into two classes: the _big barns_ which belong to the rich, and where there are forty or fifty cows which produce from seven to eight thousand cheeses each summer, and the _associated fruitières_, which belong to the poor; these are the peasants of mid-mountain, who hold their cows in common, and share the proceeds. ‘They engage the services of a cheese-maker, whom they call the _grurin_; the _grurin_ receives the milk of the associates three times a day, and marks the quantity on a double tally. It is towards the end of April that the work of the cheese-dairies begins; it is towards the middle of June that the cheese-makers drive their cows to the mountains.’