wo children sped, hand in hand, toward the village.
"Bel is gone!" gasped Jan, as they passed the pasture bars. "Pier,
too," sobbed Marie. Down the whole length of the deserted village
street they flew, with Fidel following close at their heels. When they
came to the little church, they burst open the door and looked in. The
cheerful sun streamed through the windows, falling in brilliant patches
of light upon the floor, but the church was silent and empty. It was
some time before they could realize that there was not a human being
but themselves in the entire village; all the others had been driven
away like sheep, before the invading army. When at last the terrible
truth dawned upon them, the two frightened children sat down upon the
church steps in the silence, and clung, weeping, to each other. Fidel
whined and licked their hands, as though he, too, understood and felt
their loneliness.

"What shall we do? What shall we do?" moaned Marie.

"There's nobody to tell us what to do," sobbed Jan. "We must just do
the best we can by ourselves."

"We can't stay here alone!" said Marie.

"But where can we go?" cried Jan. "There's no place for us to go to!"

For a few minutes the two children wept their hearts out in utter
despair, but hope always comes when it is most needed, and soon Marie
raised her head and wiped her eyes.

"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 th