Christmas 1823 was especially lively and colourful in the village of Montfermeil. Entertainers and traders from Paris set up their stalls in the streets, and business at the Thenardiers' inn was very good. While guests and visitors ate and drank noisily, Cosette - now eight years old - sat in her usual place under the kitchen table. Dressed in rags, she knitted woollen stockings for Eponine and Azelma.

One evening, Madame Thenardier ordered Cosette out into the cold to fetch water. The nearest water supply was half-way down the wooded hill on which Montfermeil stood, and Cosette hated fetching water, especially in the dark. Miserably, she picked up a large, empty bucket that was almost as big as she was, and was walking with it to the door when Madame Thenardier stopped her.

'Buy some bread on the way,' she said, giving the girl some money.

Cosette took the coin, put it carefully in her pocket and left. She was cold and hungry as she dragged the bucket behind her along the crowded street, but she could not resist stopping in front of one of the stalls. It was like a palace to her, with its bright lights, shining glass and pretty objects. But the object that most attracted Cosette's attention was a large, golden-haired doll in a beautiful long pink dress. All the children in Montfermeil had gazed with wonder at this doll, but nobody in the village had enough money to buy it.

Cosette gazed at the doll for several minutes but, remembering her job, she sighed and continued on her way. She had soon left the colourful lights and the happy laughter of the village behind her, and was running down the hill into the frightening darkness of the wood. Finding the stream, she bent forward and began to till her bucket. She did not notice the coin that Mme Thenardier had given her for the bread fall out of her pocket into the water. When the bucket was full, she gripped the handle with her tiny, frozen hands and tried to pull it back up the hill. But the bucket was so heavy that, after a dozen steps, she had to stop for a rest. She managed a few more steps, and stopped again. Her progress became slower and slower. She was almost at the end of her strength, and she was still not out of the wood. Leaning against a tree, she cried aloud:

'Oh God help me! Please, dear God!'