ried 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.