A few words were then read, very softly, by Nathalie from the Bible. She had concluded that this would be a good way to give them a bit of religious instruction, especially for a beginning. She had begun the reading by getting them interested in the book, on whose fly-leaf was written the name, Philip Renwick, by telling them how she had found it in a little room on the upper floor of the house. She then told them about this boy who had left his mother to travel abroad, how he had married, and had then come home, only to leave his mother and return to Europe, never to be seen by her again. They were much interested in the story, especially when she showed them the picture of the young man in the library, and from that time onward the little Bible seemed to possess a peculiar interest to them, and thus led them to become more interested in the every-day Scripture lesson.
After the “Star-Spangled Banner” and several patriotic songs had been sung, and the “Marseillaise” had been given with much spirit by the boys, Janet, who had just come up from her farm, appeared, and patriotically kept time with her rake. She became so interested in the little singers that she volunteered, to Nathalie’s delight, to drill them in the national anthems of the Allies.
Whereupon Jean, with a new eagerness in his bewildered eyes, up with his hand, and made Nathalie understand that he could sing, too. Nathalie smilingly encouraged him, and in a few moments the lad’s thin, quavering voice, that grew deeper as he caught the spirit of the words, gave them Belgium’s song of cheer. This inspired Tony, and he became the soloist, and sang Italy’s national anthem.
There was a “do-as-you-please time” after dinner down on the lawn for an hour or so, and then the boys were mustered in the bathroom and initiated as to how to manipulate a tooth-brush, in a tooth-cleaning drill, Nathalie having supplied herself with three new brushes in anticipation of this procedure. Sheila, who was not one of the drillers,—only three brushes having been provided,—looked with envious eyes upon this performance, and, when Danny had finished, in a plaintively aggrieved voice complained to their young teacher that he would not let her have his brush so that she could clean her teeth, too.
Explanations were now in order. Nathalie smiling amusedly at the idea of loaning a tooth-brush, and then they were all made as presentable as possible, considering their ragged clothes, which had begun to prey upon Mrs. Page’s mind, as well as Nathalie’s. But the clothes part was something that had not presented itself to the girl when she had planned the boys’ coming, and she was at a loss to remedy the trouble.
Certainly something must be done to do away with Tony’s old velveteen embroidered vest, his greatest treasure, and Jean’s soiled white shirt, which seemed to be the only one he possessed. Danny’s clothes, although they had been queerly darned and glaringly patched, and were miles too small for him, were clean, and he did have a change of underclothing, to Nathalie’s relief.
However, the general shabbiness of the boys’ apparel had not affected their merry spirits, the girl decided, as she sat knitting on the veranda, and heard the happy, joyous voices that floated up from the lawn, as they played leap-frog, ran races, and turned handsprings. Even Jean, caught by the contagion of the moment, turned a somersault, to her breathless amazement.
She was beginning to realize what Mrs. Van Vorst meant when she spoke of what the glorious wonders of these mountains would mean to the half-fed, sickly little waifs of humanity from the East Side of New York. Yes, it meant a new world, with no more squalid, stifling two-by-two rooms, or damp, moldy cellars. No more nauseating smells, odors from the backyard garbage-can, the rattlety-bang of heavy trucks and milk-wagons, or the jarring creak of the Elevated. For, as Sheila expressed it, they were in a “big green world, with high blue walls, with flower stars a-peepin’ at ’em from the grass, and little teeny birds a-singin’ and rockin’ their babies to sleep in tall trees, that nodded to ’em with a swishy whisper.”
Suddenly the serenity of Nathalie’s cogitations received a shock, as a horrible swear-word came, no, not floating, but yelling, its way across the green. The girl jumped up and rushed down under the trees, to see Tony, with his soft, appealing ways, and Danny, with the blue eyes that she had already begun to trust for the frankness of their gaze, rolling on the lawn, locked in a vice-like grip, as they pommeled and pounded each other in a way that made Nathalie gasp.
Sheila, with squeals of delighted glee, was circling about the combatants, piping shrilly. “Give ’im a plug in the snoot, Danny! Pound ’im in the mug!” to the accompaniment of big, forceful oaths that rolled from the mouths of the fighting boys. As the little maid sighted Nathalie, she ejaculated, with a broad grin, “Ain’t them kids fierce!” which caused poor Nathalie to gasp again.