Everybody now crowded about the truck, and in it,—­oh, wonderful,- -piled on the floor and hanging from the top and sides, were the very things for which they had been longing so eagerly!  There were hoes, and shovels, and rakes, and garden seeds of all kinds.  There were bolts of cloth and woolen garments and wooden shoes, and yarn for knitting.  There were even knitting-needles!  And, best of all, there was food, food such as they had not seen in many weary months.  Ah, it was indeed marvelous what that truck contained!

The buying began at once, and never before had any one been able to purchase so much for a franc!  Soon there was nothing left in the truck but some bedding and other articles belonging to the Doctor and Mademoiselle, as the people at once began to call her.

“Will you not come with me to my apartment in the stable?” said Mother Meraut cordially to the two women.  “You must be tired from your journey.”

“We must first see the Commandant at the camp,” said the Doctor, “and then we shall be happy if you will find some lunch for us.  It is necessary to see at once if our houses have come.”

“Your houses!” cried Pierre, so surprised that he quite forgot his manners.  “But, Madame, it is not possible that you carry your houses with you like the snails?”

The Doctor laughed.  “Not just like the snails,” she said; “our houses have been sent on ahead of us in sections, with the army supplies, and are no doubt here in the care of the Commandant.”

“Go, my Pierre, conduct them to the camp,” said his Mother, “and when you come back,” she added, turning to the two women, “I will have ready for you the best that my poor house affords.”  The Doctor and Mademoiselle thanked Mother Meraut, and then, following Pierre, started down the river road toward the camp a mile or more away.

The next few days seemed to Pierre and Pierrette, and indeed to all the inhabitants of Fontanelle, little less than a series of miracles.  In the first place, the Doctor and Mademoiselle had scarcely finished the good lunch which Mother Meraut had waiting for them on their return from camp, when a great truck, loaded with sections of the portable houses, entered the great gate of the Chateau.  It was followed by a detachment of soldiers from the Foreign Legion, sent by the Commandant to erect them.  The soldiers were also Americans, and Pierre and Pierrctte were delighted to find that both “Jim” and “Uncle Sam” were among them.  Indeed Uncle Sam was in command of the squad, and when he presented himself and his men to the Doctor and Mademoiselle, he explained that the Commandant had detailed Americans to this duty, as he thought that they would more easily understand what the ladies wished to have done.