These they
brought to their Father, and soon a cheerful fire flamed red
against the shadows. Then the smell of coffee floated out upon
the evening air, and the sputter of frying eggs gave further
promise to their hungry stomachs.
Before they had finished their supper the stars were winking down
at them, and over the brow of a distant hill rose a slender
crescent moon. Pierrette saw it first. "Oh," she cried, "the new
moon! And I saw it over my right shoulder, too! We are sure to
have wonderful luck this month."
Pierre shut his eyes. "Which way is it?" he cried. Pierrette
turned him carefully about so that he too might see it over his
right shoulder, and then, this ceremony completed, they washed
the dishes and helped pack the things carefully away in the
clothes-basket once more.
They slept that night under the edge of a straw-stack in the
meadow near the river, and though they were homeless wanderers
without a roof to cover them, they slept well, and awakened next
morning to the music of bird-songs instead of to the sound of
guns and the whistling of shells.
IX. THE FOREIGN LEGION
Fortunately for our pilgrims the weather remained clear and
unusually warm for the season of year, and they were able to
continue their journey the following day in comfort. That night
they slept in a cowshed, where no cows had been since the Germans
passed through so many months before, and on the morning of the
third day they reached the large market town which marked the
junction of the little river upon which the village of Fontanelle
was situated with the Aisne.
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