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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: walnut-trees in the Brehemont, also those about Amboise and Vouvray,
were not bearing. Walnut oil is in great demand in Touraine. Jacques
might get at least forty sous for the product of each tree, and as he
had two hundred the amount was considerable; he intended to spend it
on the equipment of a pony. This wish led to a discussion with his
father, who bade him think of the uncertainty of such returns, and the
wisdom of creating a reserve fund for the years when the trees might
not bear, and so equalizing his resources. I felt what was passing
through the mother's mind as she sat by in silence; she rejoiced in
the way Jacques listened to his father, the father seeming to recover
the paternal dignity that was lacking to him, thanks to the ideas
The Lily of the Valley |
