"Scat!" said Marie, shaking the bellows at him, and Jan sauntered away toward the pasture with Pier's halter over his arm.
Pier had been eating grass for two nights and a day without doing any work, and it took Jan some time to catch him and put the halter over his head.When at last he returned from the pasture, red and tired, but triumphant, leading Pier, Marie and her mother had already finished their breakfast.
"Look what a man we have!" cried Mother Van Hove as Jan appeared.
"He has caught Pier all by himself."
"He lifted me clear off my feet when I put his halter on," said Jan proudly, "but I hung on and he had to come!""Marie," cried her mother, "our Jan has earned a good breakfast!
Cook an egg for him, while I hitch Pier to the cart.Then, while he and I work in the field, you can put the house in order.There is only one more load to bring in, and we can do that by ourselves."By noon the last of the wheat had been garnered, and this time Jan drove Pier home, while his mother sat on the load.In the afternoon the three unloaded the wagon and stowed the grain away in the barn to be threshed; and when the long day's work was over, and they had eaten their simple supper of bread and milk, Mother Van Hove and the children went together down the village street to see their neighbors and hear the news, if there should be any.
There were no daily papers in Meer, and now there were no young men to go to the city and bring back the gossip of the day, as there had used to be.The women, with their babies on their arms, stood about in the street, talking quietly and sadly among themselves.On the doorsteps a few old men lingered together over their pipes.Already the bigger boys were playing soldier, with paper caps on their heads, and sticks for guns.The smaller children were shouting and chasing each other through the little street of the village.Jan and Marie joined in a game of blindman's buff, while Mother Van Hove stopped with the group of women.
"If we only knew what to expect!" sighed the Burgomeister's wife, as she shifted her baby from one arm to the other."It seems as if we should know better what to do.In a day or two I shall send my big boy Leon to the city for a paper.It is hard to wait quietly and know nothing.""Our good King and Queen doubtless know everything," said the wife of Boer Maes."They will do better for us than we could do for ourselves, even if we knew all that they do.""And there are our own brave men, besides," added Mother Van Hove."We must not forget them! We are not yet at war.I pray God we may not be, and that we shall soon see them come marching home again to tell us that the trouble, whatever it is, is over, and that we may go on living in peace as we did before.""It seems a year since yesterday," said the Burgomeister's wife.
"Work makes the time pass quickly," said Mother Van Hove cheerfully."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.