" he returned. "But you see, we do not know
enough to plan things so closely. However, it does not make much
difference, for we have plenty of mulberry trees. With the number of
silkworms we raise we never could use them all up. Years ago my father
set out our grove, and each season he has added new trees to it until
now it stretches from behind our house far down to the river."

"It would bring you in a lot of money if you ever wanted to sell it."

"Sell it!"

"Yes."

"But we'd never sell it!" retorted Pierre. "Pray, how should we live if
we gave up raising silkworms?"

Henri shrugged his shoulders.

"I only meant that your grove is valuable," he explained kindly. "Do not
forget that. Some time you might want money. I did not know whether you
realized how much a big grove of full grown mulberry trees is worth."

"I never thought anything about it," was Pierre's thoughtful reply. "Our
trees have never seemed to me anything I could sell. I thought only of
gathering the leaves for our own use."

"Well, just remember that your silk-house and your trees are worth a
good sum to a silk-grower. In these uncertain days of war one can never
tell when money may be needed. Of course you might not be able to get
such a good price for your property now, because France is poor, and
everything is selling for less than usual--everything except food.
Still, if you found the right customer you should be able to make a good
many francs out of your homestead."

"It isn't mine," Pierre answered gaily, as if suddenly coming to
himself. "It belongs half to my uncle and half to my father. What do you
suppose they would say when they came back from the war if they found I
had sold their mulberry grove and silk-house?"

"If you needed money for your mother and little sister they would
probably feel you had done wisely, even though it caused them
disappointment to see their cherished possessions in the hands of
others. And if," added the elder boy gravely, "anything happened to them
how glad they would be that those they loved were not left penniless."

"Anything happen to them!" Pierre's face paled. He had never, strangely
enough, pictured such a calamity. _His father! His uncle!_ True, other
men were injured fighting for France, thousands of them. But surely no
harm could come to _his_ family. Those he loved would return when peace
came; take up life where they had left it; and the home would once more
be united.

The boy glanced