The Liberty Girl

by Rena I. Halsey

Jean, the Belgian refugee, stared with some perplexity at the small girl, and did not comprehend the curious situation until the children had left the breakfast-table, when Nathalie made it plain to him.

The girl found that the morning hours were well-occupied, as she started right in to put her boys through their paces, as she called her drilling, so as to prepare them not only for a very happy, but a useful, summer’s stay. She had noticed, during the morning meal, that the children, with ready sympathy for the maimed boy, had been rather officious in trying to help him, and that his thin, sickly face had flushed with embarrassment and over-sensitiveness at the fact that to them he was an object of pity.

Instantly divining how she would have felt under like circumstances, Nathalie managed to get Danny and Tony together, when Mrs. Page, whose mother-heart had gone out to the boy, had taken him down to the barn to show him where he could keep his dog, and Janet had taken possession of the little maid.

In a few words she told them the tragic story of the Belgian, and, after gaining their interest, made it clear to them how they themselves would have felt if they had been different from their mates, and warned them about being too open in their method of helping him. She suggested that little acts of subtle kindness would be more appreciated, as they would not offend his sensitiveness.

Danny was now installed, with a big apron tied around his waist, in front of the kitchen sink, taking his first lesson in Nathalie’s method of washing dishes, with Tony, the second helper, as the dish-dryer. Divining that it would not only be better for Jean, the refugee, to have employment so as to fill his mind with something besides his sad experiences, and realizing that he would naturally want to do as the other children, Nathalie made him her right-hand man, as she called it, and showed him how he could assist her in a number of ways. In a few moments he was laboriously carrying out, with one hand, the food to Nathalie, who quickly placed it in the ice-box, or closet, while little Sheila removed the soiled dishes to the kitchen, happy at being on the job, as Danny said.

From dish-washing, preparing the vegetables for dinner, sweeping the kitchen and shed, and dusting the dining-room, it was bed-making. Jean was made captain of the Working Squad, eager to help by doing what he could with his one hand, while seeing that the boys did their work as Nathalie had instructed them.

Fortunately for Nathalie, she was a fair French scholar, and as the Belgian lad had lived in one of the Walloon provinces, where French is generally spoken, she had no difficulty in conversing with him. He could speak a little English, but in a queer, hesitating way that made him shy over it.

When the morning duties were finished, and they were not done with a magician’s wand by any means, but with the exercise of great patience on the part of their young instructor, and a good deal of drilling on the children’s part, they all hurried out into the sunshine. Here they raced about, enjoying the fresh air, the green trees and the flowers, and the beautiful mountain views, and then they made the acquaintance of Sam, who not only introduced them to the fascinations of the barn,—as the cows, pigs, and chickens, the soft cooing doves who flittered over the barn-roof,—but to the one dray-horse. This animal proved a source of unfeigned joy to the boys, as Sam taught them how to harness it, and then allowed each one to ride it bareback, even Jean, whose pale face glowed with a strange joy, as he held the reins with his one hand, and rode up and down on the road in front of the house.

From the barn there was an inspection of the farm, going down a green slope to watch the sheep as they quietly browsed, and then on to the orchard, where they had their fill of fruit, while in the vegetable garden many hands proffered willing assistance to Nathalie, as she gathered what was needed to replenish the vegetable larder. From here they all trooped down to pay a visit to the farmerette, whereupon Janet set them all to weeding. Strange to say, Jean pulled up the greatest number, to Nathalie’s surprise, who, by this time, began to understand that real industry, even if one-handed, can accomplish a good deal.

Finally Nathalie lined her charges up under the trees on the lawn at attention, and undertook to teach them the military salute, but before she was through she was somewhat puzzled as to whether she or the boys was the instructor. After they had saluted the flag, which Sam had run up on the top of the barn for that very purpose, and which was to be the boys’ duty in the future, they had a little soldier’s drill.