"Jim" and "Uncle Sam" looked after them as the Ark swung out into
the stream. "Au revoir," shouted Pierre, waving his hand. "Vive
la France!" And back came the reply like an echo, "You bet your
life, vive la France!"
X. FONTANELLE
The shadows were beginning to lengthen across the valley as the
Ark rounded a bend in the stream and the little church spire of
Fontanelle came into view. "There it is--at last!" cried Mother
Meraut. "Thank God, something of the village still stands!" She
gazed eagerly into the distance. "And there is the Chateau," she
added joyfully, pointing to a large gray stone building half
hidden by a fringe of trees. "Oh, surely things are not going to
be so bad as I had feared. Hurry! hurry! It seems as though my
heart must take wings and fly before my body, now that we are so
near!"
Father Meraut bent to the oars. "I will stay with the boat while
you and the children go to the village," he said, when, a few
moments later, he found a favorable spot to land.
Mother Meraut was out of the boat almost before it was beached,
the Twins sprang out after her, and the three started up the road
to the village on a run. Groves of trees just bursting into leaf
lay between them and the one street of the little town, and it
was not until they had passed it that they could tell how much
damage had been done. The sight that met their eyes as they
entered the village was not reassuring, but, hoping against hope,
they ran on to the little house which had been Mother Meraut's
childhood home.
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