fine eels, and sell them to the people of the town. That's how I
happen 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 I
got 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