has come to take care of any who may be sick."

The Doctor had already climbed down from her high seat and was opening
the back of the truck. She smiled and shook hands with the people. "Is
there not something here you wish to buy?" she asked. "The prices are
plainly marked."

Everybody now crowded about the truck, and in it,--oh,
wonderful,--piled on the floor and hanging from the top and sides, were
the very things for which they had been longing so eagerly! There were
hoes, and shovels, and rakes, and garden seeds of all kinds. There were
bolts of cloth and woolen garments and wooden shoes, and yarn for
knitting. There were even knitting-needles! And, best of all, there was
food, food such as they had not seen in many weary months. Ah, it was
indeed marvelous what that truck contained!

The buying began at once, and never before had any one been able to
purchase so much for a franc! Soon there was nothing left in the truck
but some bedding and other articles belonging to the Doctor and
Mademoiselle, as the people at once began to call her.

"Will you not come with me to my apartment in the stable?" said Mother
Meraut cordially to the two women. "You must be tired from your
journey."

"We must first see the Commandant at the camp," said the Doctor, "and
then we shall be happy if you will find some lunch for us. It is
necessary to see at once if our houses have come."

"Your houses!" cried Pierre, so surprised that he quite forgot his
manners. "But, Madame, it is not possible that you carry your houses
with you like the snails?"

The Doctor laughed. "Not just like the snails," she said; "our houses
have been sent on ahead of us in sections, with the army supplies, and
are no doubt here in the care of the Commandant."

"Go, my Pierre, conduct them to the camp," said his Mother, "and when
you come back," she added, turning to the two women, "I will have ready
for you the best that my poor house affords." The Doctor and
Mademoiselle thanked Mother Meraut, and then, following Pierre, started
down the river road toward the camp a mile or more away.

The next few days seemed to Pierre and Pierrette, and indeed to all the
inhabitants of Fontanelle, little less than a series of miracles. In
the first place, the Doctor and Mademoiselle had scarcely finished the
good lunch which Mother Meraut had waiting for them on their return
from camp, when a great truck, loaded with sections of the portable
houses, entered the gr