"Jan and I got in the last of our wheat to-day. He helped me like a
man."

"Who will thresh it for you?" asked the wife of Boer Maes.

"I will thresh it myself, if need be," said Mother Van Hove with
spirit. "My good man shall not come home and find the farm-work behind
if I can help it." And with these brave words she said good-night to
the other women, called Jan and Marie, and turned once more down the
street toward the little house on the edge of the village. Far across
the peaceful twilight fields came the sound of distant bells. "Hark!"
said Mother Van Hove to the Twins--"the cathedral bells of Malines! And
they are playing 'The Lion of Flanders!'"

(three lines of music)

sang the bells, and, standing upon the threshold of her little home,
with head held proudly erect, Mother Van Hove lifted her voice and
joined the words to the melody. "They will never conquer him, the old
Lion of Flanders, so long as he has claws!" she sang, and the Twins,
looking up into her brave and inspired face, sang too.

VI

AT THE CHURCH

Several days passed quietly by in the little village of Meer. The sun
shone, and the wind blew, and the rains fell upon the peaceful fields,
just as if nothing whatever had happened. Each day was filled to the
brim with hard work. With the help of the Twins, Mother Van Hove kept
the garden free of weeds and took care of the stock. She even threshed
the wheat herself with her husband's flail, and stored the grain away
in sacks ready for the mill. Each evening, when the work was done, the
three went down the village street together. One evening, just at dusk,
they found nearly the whole village gathered in front of the priest's
house next to the church. Leon, the Burgomeister's oldest boy, had been
to Malines that day and had brought back a paper.

The priest was reading from it to the anxious group gathered about him.
"Oh, my children," he was saying, as Mother Van Hove and the Twins
joined the group, "there is, no doubt, need for courage, but where is
there a Belgian lacking in that? Even Julius Caesar, two thousand years
ago, found that out! The bravest of all are the Belgians, he said then,
and it is none the less true to-day! The Germans have crossed our
eastern frontier. It is reported that they are already burning towns
and killing the inhabitants if they resist. God knows what may be
before us. Our good King Albert has asked Parliament to refuse the
demands of the Germans. In spite