It was a heart-rending sight to see how the baker toiled; his wife did not know which way to turn; his boy knew not what to be at. At this rate the flour sacks would melt away like snow in an April sun. We had to find other sacks, or famine would break out in the village. One morning, then, Liza announced: "My horse is required to go and fetch flour at Pont-Avers."
In the country the word "requisition" does not exist. You are "required"--that is all. Mouton, then, was required to go and fetch provender. Very well. He could not tempt the greed of the Germans, being well stricken in years, and somewhat lame.
"But who will drive Mouton?" asked Mme. Laroye.
"Well, I don"t know, perhaps me," said Liza.
"You don"t say so, Liza," her mistress cried out. "There are men enough left in the village to do that. Now a woman has to stay at home, that is her right place."
In the afternoon Liza came back, and said in a triumphant tone:
"The blacksmith is driving to Pont-Avers. I have told them it was not a woman"s job."
The good creature was delighted with her saying, and repeated over and over again:
"I told them so ... it is not a woman"s job."
Alas, how many things women had to take charge of which were not "women"s jobs"! How courageous and hard-working they were, the women of the villages! The men had gone to the war, and left the harvest ungathered. "The work must be done," said the women, and, without a moment"s rest, they bent in toil to the earth. We, too, did our share.
Perched upon steep ladders or hazardous trees, we picked thousands of small blue plums, which Liza crammed into big-bellied casks. After mysterious treatment the fruit was expected to turn into an exquisite brandy, p.r.o.nounced by the well-skilled old gossips a cure for every ill.
Better than that, we shut up with our own hands Mme. Laroye"s hiding-place. For who would have believed it? Her house was not in order! She had buried a cash-box full of golden coins in her garden, but we thought she had better remove a great many other things just as valuable as money. Besides, she had a hiding-place. It was not a fanciful hiding-place like ours, but a serious hiding-place, contrived by a workman, a past-master in digging and masonry. The cellar opens into the arched entrance of the house. In a corner of this cellar is a trap-door which, lifted up, leads to a break-neck flight of steps hewn out in the rock. At the foot of the steps is a smaller cellar, which is the hiding-place. We took down the other silver, linen, fine old shawls, at which we gazed with envious eyes, and then the wine.
"Not all the wine, dear cousin, not all. They will never believe you have no wine at all."
When the trap-door was closed, we carried down with great trouble a few barrowfuls of earth, which a skilful hand raked over properly. Then we stamped upon it, swept the cellar, scattered grey dust over the fresh earth, and put old boxes and tubs in the corner. Shrewder than a Prussian would he be who saw anything here! Alas, it was a beast who brought our fine work to nothing! In the course of time we heard that Uhlans on their way through Chevregny put horses into the cellar. The horses, as they are wont to, pawed and scratched the ground.
"It sounds hollow!" cried the Prussians.
"It sounds wine!" they went on, in a fit of inspiration, and then discovered they had been cheated.
I do not know what became of the other objects, but I know perfectly well the way Mme. Laroye"s wine went.
In spite of these interesting occupations, we were bored. And yet we had discovered in Bouconville, three miles off, a well-stored shop which supplied us with cotton, wool, and stuffs to give work to our idle fingers. In spite of Mme. Valaine"s anxiety, we went, two or three together, and brought back in triumph what was wanting. But we never ventured into the wood, and on our homeward journeys we cast sidelong glances at the "sand-pit," whose green shade always allured us. Such is the name of a few acres of wood, belonging to my mother-in-law, where I hope some day to install my household G.o.ds. There a brooklet murmurs, and hard by shall be my house, with a willow charming and majestic, an ash lofty and elegant to give me shade. There I shall live happy on milk and honey--goats and bees will be mine--with my husband and the children which I trust G.o.d will grant me. We shall be once more in Arcady.
Thus I mused on my way home, when suddenly some German troops appeared on the horizon to dispel my dream of Arcady, and sent me home in haste to the shelter of the farm.
I have said we were bored. Life was chiefly unbearable for want of news.
What was going on? For two days we had heard an echo of the guns. Was there a battle? The first Germans we had seen had told us with a sneer:
"Parisse, Parisse, within dree tays we are in Parisse!"
Had the progress of the haughty boors been stayed? Hope trembled at the bottom of our hearts; hope, which dared not grow, and which we dared not avow.
Ten times a day we left our needlework or our book to run to the garden.
We listened. A kind of rumbling was all we heard. Was it to the east, the north, or the south? Was it a singing in our ears or was it cannon-shots?
"What if we placed our ears to the ground?"
And so we lay on the gra.s.s like so many dead bodies, and concentrated our whole souls in listening.
"There certainly is a rambling." This conviction filled our hearts with joy and anxiety, and the whole day long we fidgeted about the house.
Besides, we could not stay for ever in Chevregny. We had to make up our minds.
"Since the Germans are here, there, and everywhere," I said, "we had better go back home, where at least we are comfortable and at ease."
In Chevregny, to be sure, comfort is unknown. For instance, cleanliness does not hold a large place in the people"s life, though we had transformed the bakehouse into a very decent bathroom. Every evening Pierrot was washed at the pump, and pretended to throw the water which deluged him to the bright and pa.s.sionless moon.
As long as the weather kept warm it was pleasant enough, but all the same home would be better. But before taking so long a journey, we thought it well to think over it at leisure. A word from M. Lonet settled the matter. "There is no danger," he wrote; "some one ought to come back; the house might be occupied."
If one of us went, then we would all go. Union is strength. Boldly we had come to Chevregny by night, nine in number, including the dogs.
Nine in number we would go home by day. We had spent a week in Chevregny.
On Tuesday we had Gentil put to. Liza huddled our luggage into the cart, helped Mme. Valaine and Pierrot up, and sat on the box. In a few feeling words, one and all took leave of our kind cousin, and we followed on foot.
We walked on without hardihood, casting suspicious glances before and behind. The mere shadow of a helmet would have put us to flight.
Besides, the horse might be requisitioned, and Liza left us at Bievres, and drove home as fast as she could. In Bruyeres we met with a big dog almost as alarming as a Prussian. Percinet is fond of fighting, and he cannot bear the sight of his kindred alive. Two days before he had satisfied this thirst for blood by killing two dogs. At the entrance of Morny we pa.s.sed three riders on the road, dressed in green, booted and spurred, with their helmets on. We did not think them mere gendarmes, as we heard afterwards they were. They contented themselves with gazing at the dusty, weary group that went by. At length we got home. Dear little house! it had not altered! Its white walls were still there; so was its grey roof. The Virginia creepers shook their branches like arms to wish us a hearty welcome. We threw the gate open. The dogs rushed into the stable at a cheerful bound.
Leaving the luggage in the lobby, we dropped into the dining-room chairs, and gave a deep sigh of satisfaction.
CHAPTER V
We were at home again! This was a set-off for the misfortunes with which a wretched fate had loaded us. The house was as snug as we had left it, and we had but to return to our old habits. So we did and exactly! The cake we had left, at our flight, was still lying on the table. As we were hungry we each s.n.a.t.c.hed our share, and ate it with ravenous appet.i.te. It was a bit hard, but all the same delicious. We wandered through the house with joy. We were at home again! How many of those who had fled from the invasion had renounced the pleasures of home for months or even years? Some of out friends at Morny had not yet come back. Yet could we pity them? A thousand times no; at least they would never endure the trials to which the conquered are exposed, and which, after a momentary calm, once more had depressed us. The presence of the Germans, quartered in the village, seemed unbearable.
Ah, poor, poor snails that we were! In spite of our efforts, the flood had overtaken and submerged us. The tree we tried to climb was too low; the inundation covered everything; and we could not foresee the end of the nightmare. How long should we have to groan and struggle in that all-devouring water? We besought G.o.d to deliver us, and G.o.d seemed deaf to our prayers and blind to our tears. We called to you who were on the mainland over the mountains, insurmountable as the great wall of China.
Our hearts called to you, and no one answered. For a fortnight the floods had been out, and already we were losing patience.
Morally drowned as we were, we still had a physical need of food. A household of seven persons and two dogs must furnish its larder and cellar with abundant provisions. The grocers of the village had but empty shops; our neighbours were unhumbled, because each was the owner of a plot of ground. Less favoured than the poorest of the poor, we had no crop at all. What would become of us? I have said we had no crop. I was wrong. We even had a superb crop. The pear trees, even those which these last fifteen years had yielded no fruit at all, had deemed it a point of honour to do their best, in hard times, and were all laden with huge plump pears, which made your mouth water. They were not ripe yet; but, determined not to tempt the green-uniformed marauders, we made up our minds to gather them. For two days we picked them, and filled basket upon basket with pears, long or round, green or yellow.
Then there was the problem to solve, where to hide them? We laid our heads together, and by unanimous consent decided upon the deserter"s attic. On one side, the attic was full of f.a.ggots; on the other, behind the chimney that comes up from the wash-house, there was a floor-s.p.a.ce, about eight feet square, and there we laid our beautiful pears amid shreds of paper instead of straw. To conceal their retreat, we heaped up at the entrance old boxes, hen-coops, and a garden roller in elaborate disorder. n.o.body would ever have thought that this innocent pile of rubbish was a treasure-h.o.a.rd. But we, who knew, put one foot here, another there, and at a bound we were on the floor in the very abode of the pears, where cunning paths allowed us to visit our friends and choose the juiciest among them. We never made these visits without a groan, for we always forgot the existence of a big cistern, fitted up in the roof, and constantly knocked our heads against this iron ceiling.
But the shock itself kindled our imagination, and struck out a flash of genius.
"Suppose we put the wine into the cistern!"
We thought we had given all our wine to the French soldiers, and then we discovered in the bottom of a box about thirty bottles, which we resolved to hide from the Germans" thirst. I must admit that our sobriety equals the camel"s. We drink hardly anything besides water. A bottle of wine a week satisfies the needs of the whole family. But, all the same, we did not want our wine to moisten German throats. So through the yard, up the ladder, over the boxes, the bottles went their way. Not too well poised on a tottering scaffolding I wriggled into the narrow s.p.a.ce between the beam and the cistern. I held out a groping hand, into which was placed the neck of a bottle, and little by little the receptacle was filled. We went quickly to work. My sister-in-law carried up the bottles with care; I laid them down with a gentle hand. For it is well known that a Prussian ear detects the clinking of bottles a mile off, and of course the Prussian, contiguous to the ear, being forewarned, rests not until he has secured the too imprudent bottles.
But all of a sudden I was aroused by a loud shout, instantly hushed to a discreet silence.
I jumped down from my scaffold, leapt over the pears, scaled the boxes, tumbled down the ladder, and found myself in the midst of a perplexed group.
"Grandmother, what is the matter?"
Yvonne and Colette, prying in the cellar, had discovered a fair-sized keg, which gurgled when it was shaken.
The treasure-hunters thrust in the bung with an effort, inserted a tap, drew out a gla.s.s of the liquor and brought it to me.
"What is it?"