The Valley of Vision | Page 7

a thin, dark little person. She is melancholy and morose, quarrels all the time, says some one has stolen her children. The people near her in the barracks complain that she disturbs them at night, moans and talks aloud in her sleep, jumps up and runs down the corridor laughing or crying: 'Here they are!' They don't believe she ever had any children. They think she is crazy and want her put out. But I don't agree with that. I think she has had children, and now she has dreams."
"Send her away," growls the commandant; "send her to a sanatorium! This camp is not a lunatic asylum."
"But," interposes the nurse in her most discreet voice, "she is really a very nice woman. If you would allow me to take her on as a housemaid in the general hospital, I think I could make something out of her; at least I should like to try."
"Have your own way," says the commandant, relenting; "you always do. Now tell me the next trouble. You have something more up your sleeve, I'm sure."
"Babies," she replies demurely; "two babies from Amsterdam. Lost, somehow or other, in the flight. No trace of their people. A family in Zaandam has been taking care of them, but can't afford it any longer. So the Amsterdam committee has sent them here."
The commandant has listened, his cheeks growing redder and redder, his eyes rounder and more prominent. He springs up and paces the floor in wrath.
"Babies!" he cries stormily. "By all the gods, da--those Amsterdammers! Excuse me, but this is too much. Do they think this is a foundling asylum? or a nursing home? Babies! What in Heaven's name am I to do with them? Babies! Where are those babies?"
"Just outside, and very nice babies indeed," says the nurse, opening the hall door and giving a soft call.
Enter a slim black-haired boy of about three and a half years and a plump golden-haired girl about a year younger. They toddle to the nurse and snuggle against her blue dress and white apron.
Smiling she guides them toward the commandant and says: "Here they are, sir. How do you like them?"
That terrific personage has been suddenly transformed from haircloth into silk. He beams, and pulling out his fat gold watch, coos like a hoarse dove: "Look here, kinderen, come and hear the bells in my tick-tock!"
Presently he has one of them leaning against the inside of each knee, listening ardently to the watch.
"What do you think of that!" he says. "What is your name, youngster?"
"Hendrik," answers the boy, looking up.
"Hendrik _what?_ You have another name, haven't you?"
The boy shakes his head and looks puzzled, as if the thought of two names were too much for him. _"Hendrik,"_ he repeats more clearly and firmly.
"And what is her name?" asks the commandant, patting the little girl.
_"Sooss,"_ answers the boy. "Mama say _'ickle angel.'_ Hendrik say _Sooss."_
All effort to get any more information from the children was fruitless. They were too small to remember much, and what they did remember was of their own size--only very little things, of no importance except to themselves. The commandant looks at the nurse quizzically.
"Now, miss, you have unloaded these vague babies on me. What do you propose that I should do with them? Adopt them?"
"Not yet, anyhow," she answers, smiling broadly. "Let us take them up to the camp. I'll bet we can find some one there to look after them. What do you say, sir?"
"Well, well," he sighs, "have your own way as usual! Just ring that bell for the automobile, _als't-Ublieft."_
In the busy sewing-room the two children are standing up on one of the tables. The commandant has an arm around each of them, for they are a little frightened by so much noise and so many eyes looking at them. The chatter dies down, as he speaks in his gruff authoritative voice, but with a twinkle in his eyes, rather like a middle-aged Santa Claus.
"Look here! I've got two fine babies."
A titter runs through the room.
_"Ja, Men'eer,"_ says one of the women, "congratulations! They are _lievelingen_--darlings!"
"Silence!" growls the commandant amiably. "None of your impudence, you women. Look here! These two children--I want somebody to adopt them, or at least to take care of them. I will pay for them. Their names are Hendrik and--"
A commotion at the lower end of the room. A thin, dark little woman is standing up, waving her piece of sewing like a flag, her big eyes flaming with excitement.
"Stop!" she cries, hurrying and stumbling forward through the crowd of women and girls. "Oh, stop a minute! They are mine--I lost them--mine, I tell you--lost--mine!"
She reaches the head of the table and flings her arms around the boy, crying: "My Hendrik!"
The boy hesitates a second, startled by the sudden wildness of