blue apron, and her arms were
bare to the elbows; she, too, had been working, and seemed very
sorrowful. She led me into a good-sized room with a porcelain stove
and a bed at the farther end.

"You come late," she said.

"We were marching all day," I replied, "and I am fainting with hunger
and weariness."

She looked at me and I heard her say:

"Poor child! poor child! Well, take off your shoes and put on these
sabots."

Then she made me sit before the stove, and asked:

"Are your feet sore?"

"Yes, they have been so for three days."

She put the candle upon the table and went out. I took off my coat and
shoes. My feet were blistered and bleeding, and pained me horribly,
and I felt for the moment as if it would almost be better to die at
once than continue in such suffering.

This thought had more than once arisen to my mind in the march, but
now, before that good fire, I felt so worn, so miserable, that I would
gladly have lain myself down to sleep forever, notwithstanding
Catharine, Aunt Gredel, and all who loved me. Truly, I needed God's
assistance.

While these thoughts were running through my head, the door opened, and
a tall, stout man, gray-haired, but yet strong and healthy, entered.
He was one of those I had seen at work below, and held in his hands a
bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Good-evening!" said he, gravely and kindly.

I looked up. The old woman was behind him. She was carrying a little
wooden tub, which she placed on the floor near my chair.

"Take a foot-bath," said she; "it will do you good."

This kindness on the part of a stranger affected me more than I cared
to show, and I thought: "There are kind people in the world." I took
off my stockings; my feet were bleeding, and the good old dame
repeated, as she gazed at them:

"Poor child! poor child!"

The man asked me whence I came. I told him from Phalsbourg in
Lorraine. Then he told his wife to bring some bread, adding that,
after we had taken a glass of wine together, he would leave me to the
repose I needed so much.

He pushed the table before me, as I sat with my feet in the bath, and
we each drained a glass of good white wine. The old woman returned
with some hot bread, over which she had spread fresh, half-melted
butter. Then I knew how hungry I was. I was almost ill. The good
people saw my eagerness for food; for the woman said:

"Before eating, my child, you must take your feet out of the bath."

Sh