"Yes, and I am only doing that to oblige you. What do you think I can do with it?" he said. He struck the wheels and the shafts with an iron bar; then shrugged his shoulders in disgust. After a great deal of bargaining all she could get was two francs fifty on the price he had offered, and the promise that he would not take it until after they had gone, so that they could stay in it all day, which she thought would be much better for her mother than closed up in the house. After she had looked at the room that Grain-of-Salt was willing to rent, she realized how much the wagon meant to them, for in spite of the pride in which he spoke of his "Apartments," and the contempt in which he spoke of the wagon, Perrine was heartbroken at the thought that she must bring her dear mother to this dirty smelling house. As she hesitated, wondering if her mother would not be poisoned from the odor which came from the heaps of things outside, Grain-of-Salt said impatiently: "Hurry up! The rag pickers will be here in a moment and I'll have to get busy." "Does the doctor know what these rooms are like?" she asked. "Sure! He came to this one lots of times to see the Baroness." That decided her. If the doctor had seen the rooms he knew what he was doing in advising them to take one, and then if a Baroness lived in one, her mother could very well live in the other. "You'll have to pay one week in advance," said the landlord, "and three sous for the donkey and six for the wagon." "But you've bought the wagon," she said in surprise. "Yes, but as you're using it, it's only fair that you should pay." She had no reply to make to this. It was not the first time that she had been cheated. It had happened so often on their long journey. "Very well," said the poor little girl. She employed the greater part of the day in cleaning their room, washing the floor, wiping down the walls, the ceiling, the windows. Such a scrubbing had never been seen in that house since the place had been built! During the numerous trips that she made from the house to the pump she saw that not only did grass and thistles grow in the Field, but there were flowers. Evidently some neighbors had thrown some plants over the fence and the seeds had sprung up here and there. Scattered about she saw a few roots of wall-flowers, pinks and even some violets! What a lovely idea! She would pick some and put them in their room. They would drive away the bad odor, and at the same time make the place look gay. It seemed that the flowers belonged to no one, for Palikare was allowed to eat them if he wished, yet she was afraid to pick the tiniest one without first asking Grain-of-Salt. "Do you want to sell them?" he asked. "No, just to put a few in our room," she replied.