spend the
night in dangerous territory, and all because you're just as mulish as,
as a mule," he finished helplessly.

Joseph laughed. "Can't you think of anything mulisher than a mule?" he
said.

"There isn't a thing," answered his father.

"Well," answered Joseph, "there are a whole lot of other things beside
balky mules in this world that I wish had never been made. There are
spiders, and rats, and Germans. They are all pests. I don't see why
they were ever born."

Father De Smet became serious at once.

"Son," he said sternly, "don't ever let me hear you say such a thing
again. There are spiders, and rats, and balky mules, and Germans, and
it doesn't do a bit of good to waste words fussing because they are
here. The thing to do is to deal with them!"

Father De Smet was so much in earnest that he boomed these words out in
quite a loud voice. Joseph seized his hand.

"Hush!" he whispered.

Father De Smet looked up. There, standing right in front of them in the
tow-path, was a German soldier!

"Halt!" shouted the soldier.

But Netteke was now just as much bent upon going as she had been before
upon standing still. She paid no attention whatever to the command, but
walked stolidly along the tow-path directly toward the soldier.

"Halt!" cried the soldier again.

But Netteke had had no military training, and she simply kept on. In
one more step she would have come down upon the soldier's toes, if he
had not moved aside just in time. He was very angry.

"Why didn't you stop your miserable old mule when I told you to?" he
said to Father De Smet.

"It's a balky mule," replied Father De Smet mildly, "and very
obstinate."

"Indeed!" sneered the soldier; "then, I suppose you have named him
Albert after your pig-headed King!"

"No," answered Father De Smet, "I think too much of my King to name my
mule after him."

"Oh, ho!" said the German; "then perhaps you have named him for the
Kaiser!"

Netteke had marched steadily along during this conversation, and they
were now past the soldier.

"No," Father De Smet called back, "I didn't name her after the Kaiser.
I think too much of my mule!"

The soldier shook his fist after them. "I'll make you pay well for your
impudence!" he shouted. "You and I will meet again!"

"Very likely," muttered Father De Smet under his breath. He was now
more than ever anxious to get beyond the German lines before dark, but
as the afternoon passed it became certain that the