of it, what is the food in barracks, schools, even prisons?  Is it not the union of individual resources which procures an amount of comfort impossible to realize without such an association?  Now, if my two hundred and sixty workmen, instead of cooking two hundred and sixty detestable dinners, were to unite to prepare one good dinner for all of them, which might be done, thanks to the savings of all sorts that would ensue, what an advantage for me and them!  Two or three women, aided by children, would suffice to make ready the daily repasts; instead of buying wood and charcoal in fractions,[33] and so paying for it double its value, the association of my workmen would, upon my security (their wages would be an efficient security for me in return), lay in their own stock of wood, flour, butter, oil, wine, etc., all which they would procure directly from the producers.  Thus, they would pay three or four sous for a bottle of pure wholesome wine, instead of paying twelve or fifteen sous for poison.  Every week the association would buy a whole ox, and some sheep, and the women would make bread, as in the country.  Finally, with these resources, and order, and economy, my workmen may have wholesome, agreeable, and sufficient food, for from twenty to twenty-five sous a day.’”

“Ah! this explains it, M. Agricola.”

“It is not all, mademoiselle.  Our cool-headed speculator would continue:  ’Here are my workmen well lodged, well warmed, well fed, with a saving of at least half; why should they not also be warmly clad?  Their health will then have every chance of being good, and health is labor.  The association will buy wholesale, and at the manufacturing price (still upon my security, secured to me by their wages), warm, good, strong materials, which a portion of the workmen’s wives will be able to make into clothes as well as any tailor.  Finally, the consumption of caps and shoes being considerable, the association will obtain them at a great reduction in price.’  Well, Mdlle.  Angela! what do you say to our speculator?”

“I say, M. Agricola,” answered the young girl; with ingenuous admiration, “that it is almost incredible, and yet so simple!”

“No doubt, nothing is more simple than the good and beautiful, and yet we think of it so seldom.  Observe, that our man has only been speaking with a view to his own interest—­only considering the material side of the question—­reckoning for nothing the habit of fraternity and mutual aid, which inevitably springs from living together in common—­not reflecting that a better mode of life improves and softens the character of man—­not thinking of the support and instruction which the strong owe to the weak—­not acknowledging, in fine, that the honest, active, and industrious man has a positive right to demand employment from society, and wages proportionate to the wants of his condition.  No, our speculator only thinks of the gross profits; and yet, you see, he invests his money in buildings at five per cent., and finds the greatest advantages in the material comfort of his workmen.”