When Grand'mere, the Twins, and their Mother reached the stable
they took their bundles from the hands of their friends, and went
in to inspect their new home. The stable had been swept and
scrubbed until it was as clean as it could be made. The large box
stall served as a bedroom for Grand'mere and Grandpere. Above
their bed of hay, covered with old blankets and quilts, was hung
a wooden crucifix. This, with two boxes for seats, was all the
furniture it contained. A few articles of clothing hung about on
nails, and in the open space before the stalls a stove was
placed, the pipe running through a pane of glass in a window near
by.
When Grandpere and Father Meraut arrived, Mother Meraut met them
at the door. "Behold our new apartment!" she said, and she led
her husband to one of the clean stalls, where she had already
begun to set up housekeeping. The Twins were at that moment in
the loft overhead, getting hay for their beds, and Jacqueline,
exhausted by her journey, had been put to bed in the manger.
Father Meraut looked about. "This is not bad for the summer," he
said, "and who knows what good luck may come to us by fall?
Perhaps the Germans will be driven out of France by that time,
and surely we shall be able to do some planting even now."
"We have dug up the ground for gardens as best we could with the
few tools we have," said Grandpere. "The government would send us
seeds, but the roads are very bad, and we have no horses, and
supplies are hard to get even though we have money to pay for
them.
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