Cellars Here," and when the bombardment began, people would dash
for the nearest shelter and wait until the storm was over.

Pierre and Pierrette played out of doors every day, though they
did not go far from their home, and had no one but each other to
play with. Pierrette made a play-house in one corner of the
court. Here in a little box she kept a store of broken dishes,
and here she sat long hours with her doll Jacqueline. Sometimes
Pierre, having no better occupation, played with her. He even
took a gingerly interest in Jacqueline, although he would not for
the world have let any of the boys know of such a weakness.

When the shells began to fall, they would leave their corner and
run quickly to the cellar. As Father Meraut could not go up or
down, his wife stayed in the kitchen beside him. In this way
several weary weeks went by. Mother Meraut went no more to the
Cathedral. There was nothing there that she could do. The great,
beautiful church which had been the very soul of Rheims and the
pride of France was now nothing but a ruined shell, its wonderful
windows broken, its roof gone, its very walls of stone so burned
that they crumbled to pieces at a touch. Even the great bronze
bells had been melted in the flames and had fallen in molten
drops, like tears of grief, into the wreckage below. All the
beautiful treasures--the tapestries, wrought by the hands of
queens, and even the sacred banner of Jeanne d'Arc itself--had
been destroyed.

Mother Meraut knew, but she did not tell her children, that
precious lives had also been lost, and that buried somewhere in
the ruins were the bodies of doctors and nurses who had given