The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono

Author:Jean Giono [Jean Giono]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2014-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

Peaceful and regular work, a frugal way of life, the bracing air of the uplands, and above all his tranquillity of mind — all these had given the old man an almost awesome good health. He was an athlete of God. I wondered how many more hectares he was going to cover with trees. Before we left, my friend briefly and simply suggested that certain other trees might be very suitable for this terrain, though he didn’t press the point. “After all, he’s wiser than I am,” he said. Then, after my friend and I had walked on for about an hour, he added: “He’s the wisest man in the world! He’s discovered a perfect recipe for happiness!”

Because of my friend, not only the forest but also our hero’s happiness was protected: three subordinates were appointed, and bullied to such good purpose that they remained unmoved by any bribes the woodcutters might tempt them with.

The tree-planter’s work wasn’t really threatened until the 1939 war. In those days cars were run on machines that turned wood into gas, and there was never enough wood. People started cutting down the oaks that had been planted in 1910, but the trees were so far from main roads that the business didn’t pay and was abandoned. The shepherd didn’t even know about it. He was thirty kilometres away, going peacefully on with his task, ignoring the 1939 war just as he’d ignored the war of 1914.

I saw Elzéard Bouffier for the last time in June 1945. He was then eighty-seven. I took the same route into the wilds as before, but now, although everything had been allowed to run down during the war, there was a bus service linking the valley of the Durance and the mountains. I assumed it was because I was driving through the country relatively fast that I didn’t recognise scenery I’d seen for the first time on foot. Some of the settlements we went through also seemed quite new. It was only when I found out the names of the villages that I knew I really was back in a region that had once been ruined and desolate. The bus set me down in Vergons.

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