Before Beetle became the midwife's apprentice, she was homeless. She was an orphan with no known family. The girl did not even know her real name. She had been called Brat, so she went by that name until the midwife started calling her Beetle. She was about twelve or thirteen years old, but she did not know her exact age. She had drifted from place to place, doing odd jobs for food or "a night on the stable floor." She was very skinny from not eating enough. Beetle was often taunted by village boys, who were always "teasing, taunting, pinching, [and] kicking" the girl.
On the night before Jane, the midwife, found the girl, she slept in a dung heap in the village. The night was cold, so she "burrowed deep into the warm, rotting muck." At first, Jane told her to leave the village. Beetle offered to work in exchange for food, and Jane gave her several small tasks to do before she became the woman's apprentice.
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