"Don't you remember what Mother said when she put the locket on my neck, Jan?" she asked."She said that she would find us, even if she had to swim the sea! She said no matter what happened we should never despair, and here we are despairing as hard as ever we can."Jan threw up his chin, and straightened his back."Yes," he said, swallowing his sobs, "and she said I was now a man and must take care of myself and you.""What shall we do, then?" asked Marie.
Jan thought hard for a moment.Then he said: "Eat! It must be late, and we have not had a mouthful to-day."Marie stood up."Yes," said she; "we must eat.Let us go back home."The clock in the steeple struck eleven as the two children ran once more through the deserted street and began a search for food in their empty house.
They found that the invaders had been as thorough within the house as without.Not only had they carried away the grain which their mother had worked so hard to thresh, but they had cleaned the cupboard as well.The hungry children found nothing but a few crusts of bread, a bit of cheese, and some milk in the cellar, but with these and two eggs, which Jan knew where to look for in the straw in the barn, they made an excellent breakfast.They gave Fidel the last of the milk, and then, much refreshed, made ready to start upon a strange and lonely journey the end of which they did not know.They tied their best clothes in a bundle, which Jan hung upon a stick over his shoulder, and were just about to leave the house, when Marie cried out, "Suppose Mother should come back and find us gone!""We must leave word where we have gone, so she will know where to look for us, of course," Jan answered capably.
"Yes, but how?" persisted Marie."There's no one to leave word with!"This was a hard puzzle, but Jan soon found a way out."We must write a note and pin it up where she would be sure to find it,"he said.
"The very thing," said Marie.
They found a bit of charcoal and a piece of wrapping-paper, and Jan was all ready to write when a new difficulty presented itself."What shall I say?" he said to Marie."We don't know where we are going!""We don't know the way to any place but Malines," said Marie; "so we'll have to go there, I suppose.""How do you spell Malines?" asked Jan, charcoal in hand.
"Oh, you stupid boy!" cried Marie."M-a-l-i-n-e-s, of course!"Jan put the paper down on the kitchen floor and got down before it on his hands and knees.He had not yet learned to write, but he managed to print upon it in great staggering letters:--"DEAR MOTHER
WE HAVE GONE TO MALINES TO FIND YOU.
JAN AND MARIE."
This note they pinned upon the inside of the kitchen door.
"Now we are ready to start," said Jan; and, calling Fidel, the two children set forth.They took a short cut from the house across the pasture to the potato-field.Here they dug a few potatoes, which they put in their bundle, and then, avoiding the road, slipped down to the river, and, following the stream, made their way toward Malines.
It was fortunate for them that, screened by the bushes and trees which fringed the bank of the river, they saw but little of the ruin and devastation left in the wake of the German hosts.There were farmers who had tried to defend their families and homes from the invaders.Burning houses and barns marked the places where they had lived and died.But the children, thinking only of their lost mother, and of keeping themselves as much out of sight as possible in their search for her, were spared most of these horrors.Their progress was slow, for the bundle was heavy, and the river path less direct than the road, and it was nightfall before the two little waifs, with Fidel at their heels, reached the well-remembered Brussels gate.
Their hearts almost stopped beating when they found it guarded by a German soldier."Who goes there?" demanded the guard gruffly, as he caught sight of the little figures.
"If you please, sir, it's Jan and Marie," said Jan, shaking in his boots.
"And Fidel, too," said Marie.
The soldier bent down and looked closely at the two tear-stained little faces.It may be that some remembrance of other little faces stirred within him, for he only said stiffly, "Pass, Jan and Marie, and you, too, Fidel." And the two children and the dog hurried through the gate and up the first street they came to, their bundle bumping along behind them as they ran.
The city seemed strangely silent and deserted, except for the gray-clad soldiers, and armed guards blocked the way at intervals.Taught by fear, Jan and Marie soon learned to slip quietly along under cover of the gathering darkness, and to dodge into a doorway or round a corner, when they came too near one of the stiff, helmeted figures.
At last, after an hour of aimless wandering, they found themselves in a large, open square, looking up at the tall cathedral spires.A German soldier came suddenly out of the shadows, and the frightened children, scarcely knowing what they did, ran up the cathedral steps and flung themselves against the door.When the soldier had passed by, they reached cautiously up, and by dint of pulling with their united strength succeeded at last in getting the door open.They thrust their bundle inside, pushed Fidel in after it, and then slipped through themselves.
The great door closed behind them on silent hinges and they were alone in the vast stillness of the cathedral.Timidly they crept toward the lights of the altar, and, utterly exhausted, slept that night on the floor near the statue of the Madonna, with their heads pillowed on Fidel's shaggy side.