r, until we get clear to the sea," said Pierre with
enthusiasm.

"It's just like being gypsies, isn't it?" added Pierrette.

"So far as I can see," said Mother Meraut, "we've got to go on and on!
Certainly we can't go back."

"No, we can't go back," echoed her husband, with a sigh.

All the pleasant afternoon they drifted peacefully along, and nightfall
found them in open country. It began to grow colder as darkness came
on. "We shall need all our blankets if we are to sleep in the fields,"
said Mother Meraut at last. "It's time for supper and bed, anyway.
Let's go ashore."

"We'll build a fire on the bank and cook our supper there," said her
husband.

"What is there, Mother, that we can cook?"

"There are eggs to fry, and potatoes to roast in the ashes," she
answered, "and coffee besides."

"I am as hungry as a wolf," said Pierrette.

"I'm as hungry as two wolves," said Pierre.

They found a landing-place, and the Ark was drawn ashore. Pierre and
Pierrette ran at once to gather sticks and leaves. These they brought
to their Father, and soon a cheerful fire flamed red against the
shadows. Then the smell of coffee floated out upon the evening air, and
the sputter of frying eggs gave further promise to their hungry
stomachs.

Before they had finished their supper the stars were winking down at
them, and over the brow of a distant hill rose a slender crescent moon.
Pierrette saw it first. "Oh," she cried, "the new moon! And I saw it
over my right shoulder, too! We are sure to have wonderful luck this
month."

Pierre shut his eyes. "Which way is it?" he cried. Pierrette turned him
carefully about so that he too might see it over his right shoulder,
and then, this ceremony completed, they washed the dishes and helped
pack the things carefully away in the clothes-basket once more.

They slept that night under the edge of a straw-stack in the meadow
near the river, and though they were homeless wanderers without a roof
to cover them, they slept well, and awakened next morning to the music
of bird-songs instead of to the sound of guns and the whistling of
shells.

IX. THE FOREIGN LEGION

Fortunately for our pilgrims the weather remained clear and unusually
warm for the season of year, and they were able to continue their
journey the following day in comfort. That night they slept in a
cowshed, where no cows had been since the Germans passed through so
many months before, and on the morning of the third