It is comforting, also, to know that there are many instances of happy reunions after long and unspeakable anxieties, adventures, and trials.

This story of two little Belgian refugees is based upon the actual experience of two Belgian children, and the incident of the locket is quite true.

The characters of the eel-woman and the mother of the Twins have also their living originals, from whose courage and devotion the author has received much inspiration.

CONTENTS

I. [THE HARVEST-FIELD]
II. [THE RUMORS]
III. [THE ALARM]
IV. ["FOR KING, FOR LAW AND LIBERTY"]
V. [DOING A MAN'S WORK]
VI. [AT THE CHURCH]
VII. [THE TIDAL WAVE OF GERMANS]
VIII. [GRANNY AND THE EELS]
IX. [OFF FOR ANTWERP]
X. [ON THE TOW-PATH]
XI. [THE ATTACK]
XII. [THE ZEPPELIN RAID]
XIII. [REFUGEES]
XIV. [THE MOST WONDERFUL PART]

THE BELGIAN TWINS

I

THE HARVEST-FIELD

It was late in the afternoon of a long summer's day in Belgium. Father Van Hove was still at work in the harvest-field, though the sun hung so low in the west that his shadow, stretching far across the level, green plain, reached almost to the little red-roofed house on the edge of the village which was its home. Another shadow, not so long, and quite a little broader, stretched itself beside his, for Mother Van Hove was also in the field, helping her husband to load the golden sheaves upon an old blue farm-cart which stood near by.