e
the door from the outside. This she did, hastily, throwing some straw
before it. Then she rushed into the house and, snatching up her shining
milk-pans, flung them upon the straw, as if they were placed there to
be sweetened by the sun. No one would think to look under a pile of
pans for hidden Belgians, she felt sure.

Nearer and nearer came the hosts, and now she could hear the sound of
singing as from ten thousand brazen throats, "Deutschland, Deutschland
uber Alles," roared the mighty chorus, and in another moment the little
village of Meer was submerged in the terrible gray flood.

At last, after what seemed to the imprisoned children like a year of
darkness and dread, and of strange, terrifying noises of all kinds, the
sound of horses' hoofs and marching feet died away in the distance, and
Jan ventured to push open the door of the cavern a crack, just
intending to peep out. Immediately there was a crash of falling
tinware. Jan quickly drew back again into the safe darkness and waited.
As nothing further happened, he peeped out again. This time Fidel,
springing forward, flung the doors wide open, and dashed out into the
sunshine with a joyous bark.

In a moment more Jan and Marie also crawled out of their hiding-place
after him. For an instant, as they came out into the daylight, it
seemed to the children as if they had awakened from a dreadful dream.
There stood the farmhouse just as before, with the kitchen door wide
open and the sun streaming in upon the sanded floor. There were only
the marks of many feet in the soft earth of the farmyard, an empty
pigpen, and a few chicken feathers blowing about the hen house, to show
where the invaders had been and what they had carried away with them.
Jan and Marie, followed by Fidel, ran through the house. From the front
door, which opened on the road; they could see the long gray line
sweeping across the fields toward Malines.

"The storm has passed," cried Marie, sobbing with grief, "just as
Mynheer Pastoor said it would! Mother! Mother, where are you?" They ran
from kitchen to bedroom and back again, their terror increasing at
every step, as no voice answered their call. They searched the cellar
and the loft; they looked in the stable and barn, and even in the
dog-house. Their mother was nowhere to be found!

"I know where she must be," cried Jan, at last. "You know Mynheer
Pastoor said, if anything happened, we should hide in the church." Led
by this hope, the t