"Look what I have in my wheelbarrow!" She took a basket from the top of it as she spoke.
Fidel was already looking in, with his tail standing straight out behind, his ears pointed forward, and the hairs bristling on the back of his neck.There, on some clean white sand in the bottom of the wheelbarrow, wriggled a fine fat eel!
"Now I know why I didn't sell that eel," cried Granny."There's always a reason for everything, you see, my darlings."She seized the eel with a firm, well-sanded hand as she spoke, and before could spell your name backwards, she had skinned and dressed it, and had given the remnants to poor hungry Fidel.
"Now, my boy," she said gayly to Jan as she worked, "you get together some twigs and dead leaves, and you, Big Eyes," she added to Marie, "find some stones by the river, and we'll soon have such a stove as you never saw before, and a fire in it, and a bit of fried eel, to fill your hungry stomachs."Immensely cheered, the children flew on these errands.Then Marie had a bright thought."We have some potatoes in our bundle," she said.
"Well, now," cried the little old woman, "wouldn't you think they had just followed up that eel on purpose? We'll put them to roast in the ashes.I always carry a pan and a bit of fat and some matches about with me when I take my eels to market," she explained as she whisked these things out of the basket, "and it often happens that I cook myself a bite to eat on my way home, especially if I'm late.You see, I live a long way from here, just across the river from Boom, and I'm getting lazy in my old age.Early every morning I walk to Malines with my barrow full of fine eels, and sell them to the people of the town.That's how Ihappen to be so rich!"
"Are you rich?" asked Marie wonderingly.
She had brought the stones from the river, and now she untied her bundle and took out the potatoes.Jan had already heaped a little mound of sticks and twigs near by, and soon the potatoes were cooking in the ashes, and a most appetizing smell of frying eel filled the air.
"Am I rich?" repeated the old woman.She looked surprised that any one could ask such a question."Of course I'm rich.Haven't Igot two eyes in my head, and a tongue, too, and it's lucky, indeed, that it's that way about, for if I had but one eye and two tongues, you see for yourself how much less handy that would be! And I've two legs as good as any one's, and two hands to help myself with! The Kaiser himself has no more legs and arms than I, and I doubt if he can use them half as well.Neither has he a stomach the more! And as for his heart" she looked cautiously around as she spoke "his heart, I'll be bound, is not half so good as mine! If it were, he cold not find it in it to do all the cruel things he's doing here.I 'm sure of that."For a moment the cheerfulness of her face clouded over; but she saw the shadow reflected in the faces of Jan and Marie, and at once spoke more gayly."Bless you, yes, I'm rich," she went on;"and so are you! You've got all the things that I have and more, too, for you legs and arms are young, and you have a mother to look for.Not every one has that, you may depend! And one of these days you'll find her.Make no doubt of that.""If we don't, she'll surely find us, anyway," said Jan."She said she would!""Indeed and she will," said the old woman."Even the Germans couldn't stop her; so what matter is it, if you both have to look a bit first? It will only make it the better when you find each other again."When the potatoes were done, the little old woman raked them out of the ashes with a stick, broke them open, sprinkled a bit of salt on them from the wonderful basket, and then handed one to each of the children, wrapped in a plantain leaf, so they should not burn their fingers.A piece of the eel was served to them in the same way, and Granny beamed with satisfaction as she watched her famished guests.
"Aren't you going to eat, too?" asked Marie with her mouth full.
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When they had eaten every scrap of the eel, and Fidel had finished the bones, the little old woman rose briskly from the bank, washed her pan in the river, packed it in her basket again, and led the way up the path to the highway once more.Although they found the road still filled with the flying refugees, the world had grown suddenly brighter to Jan and Marie.They had found a friend and they were fed.
"Now, you come along home with your Granny," said the little old woman as they reached the Antwerp road and turned northward, "for I live in a little house by the river right on the way to wherever you want to go!"
