the midday sun
`` From then on , the raving old man just shut himself away in his windmill and lived alone like a caged animal . He did n't even want Vivette , his fifteen year old grand daughter , around . She only had her grandfather to depend on since the death of her parents , so the poor little thing had to earn her living from any farm needing help with the harvest , the silk-worms , or the olive picking . And yet , her grandfather still displayed all the signs of loving Vivette , and he would often walk in the midday sun to see her in the farm where she was working , and he would spend many hours watching her , and breaking his heart ... `` People thought that the old miller was simply being miserly in sending Vivette away . In their opinion , it was utterly shameful to let his grand-daughter trail from farm to farm , running the risk that the supervisors would bully and abuse her and that she would suffer all the usual horrors of child labour . Cornille , who had once been respected , now roamed the streets like a gypsy ; bare-footed , with a hole in his hat , and his breeches in shreds ... . In fact , when he went to mass on Sundays , we , his own generation , were ashamed of him , and he sensed this to the point that he would n't come and sit in the front pews with us .