A mother and daughter set out to milk the cows one morning. On the way back, the daughter collapses from exhaustion. Livid, the mother demands to know why her daughter can't work as hard as she normally does. The daughter cries and explains her condition and the convenient arrangement that led to it.

This one has a fair amount of suspense, as at a point it's easy to assume the worst. I thought, "Oh no, I don't want to read about this." After Coco, I can't take this author for granted. He can write average circumstances, yet sometimes there's ordinary cruelty that's hard to stomach.

This is fairly normal for a Guy de Maupassant short story: lyrical language when setting the scene, gruff French characters and circumstances, and a merciless tendency to tell it--possibly--just how it was in his time. Instead of emphasizing the positive aspects of everyday life he tends to indulge in the less spoken about subjects.

Ultimately, since this is a short story, I can't get into it enough for feel fair about rating the "liked" three stars, but this is a good "okay" for two stars. ( )