La Sœur de Gribouille

Orphaned and poor, two siblings make their way through rural France on the strength of one sister's patience and good sense. After their mother's death, Caroline supports herself and her younger brother Gribouille with her skill as a seamstress. Gribouille is not unkind, but he is simple-minded and forever blundering into trouble, so naive that the village is quick to take him for the local fool. Caroline's steadiness repeatedly rescues them from the consequences of his mishaps, even when his blunders cost her a position and force the pair to start again. Their fortunes turn when they enter the service of Monsieur Delmis, the town mayor, who takes the well-meaning boy under his wing, and a tender thread of romance grows around Caroline as her virtue earns the affection of a kind suitor. Written for children by the Comtesse de Segur, the story unfolds as a warm moral tale that prizes loyalty, hard work, and devotion between brother and sister, building to an act of self-sacrifice that gives the gentle narrative an unexpectedly poignant close.