The teacher is teaching his last lesson. In his opinion, nobody was serious enough to study French. Children did not take their lesson seriously. Their parents preferred to put them to work on a farm or at the mills, so as to get a little more money. The teacher feels that he was equally guilty. He had often sent the students to water his flowers instead of learning their lessons. Also he often gave them holidays when he wanted to go fishing. Now he wants whole of his nation to keep their language alive.