ether, and think together, so much better than any
others; and we all stand as one irresistible power, the United
Germany."

Lucy have a little gasp! it was all so very wise.

"May I see your sisters?" she said.

The little sisters, Gretchens and Katchens, were learning away
almost as hard as the Hermanns and Fritzes, but the bigger sisters
had what Lucy thought a better time of it. One of them was helping
in the kitchen, and another in the ironing; but then they had their
books and their music, and in the evening all the families came out
into the pleasure gardens, and had little tables with coffee before
them, and the mamma knitted, and the papas smoked, and the young
ladies listened to the band. On the whole, Lucy thought she should
not mind living in Germany, if they would not have so many lessons
to learn.

CHAPTER XV.

PARIS IN THE SIEGE.

"And Uncle Joe is in France, where the fathers and brothers of those
little Prussian boys have been fighting. I wish I could see it."

There was a thunder and a whizzing in the air and a sharp rattling
noise besides; a strange, damp unwholesome smell too, mixed with
that of gunpowder; and when Lucy looked up, she found herself down
some steps in a dark, dull, vaulted-looking place, lined with stone,
however, and open to the street above. A little lamp was burning
in a corner, piles of straw and bits of furniture were lying about,
and upon one of the bundles of straw sat a little rough-haired girl.

"Ah! Madamoiselle, good morning," she said. "Are you come here to
take shelter from the shells? The battery is firing now; I do not
think Mamma will come home till it slackens a little. She is gone
to my brother who is weak after his wounds. I wish I could offer
you something, but we have nothing but water, and it is not even
sugared."

"Do you live down her?" asked Lucy, looking round at the dreary
place with wonder.

"Not always. We used to have a pretty little house over this, but
the cruel shells came crashing in, and flew into pieces, tearing
everything to splinters, and we are only safe from them down here.
Ah, if I could only have shown you Mamma's pretty room! But there
is a great hole in the floor now, and the ceiling is all tumbling
down, and the table broken."

"But why do you stay here?"

"Mamma and Emily say it is all the same. We are as safe in our
cellar as we could be anywhere, and we should have to pay elsewhere."

"Then you canno