Show BELGIUM A piece of tile by katharine no eggleston roberts T copyright 1920 2920 western newspaper union Is this where I 1 used to live grandmother the little girl stood in the middle of no mans linns land surveying the torn ground and leafless trees yes dear right here where you tire are standing the old woman slipped and slid over the uneven earth peering now into agne one cavity now into another seeing always only small bits of broken bricks brick and sometimes s a rusted obus louisa she called to her daughter 1 I believe this Is where the old cherry tree stood try here I 1 seem to remember hearing paul say he burled it near the tree louisa a tall broadly built woman thrust her spade into the ground and silently began to dig grandmother the child called from a little distance did father and mother live here too yes marla madame turned to her daughter again if we dont find the money what are we to do for marla maria it if only her mother were liere here we have nothing and when paul turned everything to sliver silver and burled it before he left lie he thought he put it in the safest place louisa straightened her aching back yes iles and he thought hed come for it himself somehow he never seemed to realize that lie he might never come her voice dwindled to a whisper louisa began to dig again the old woman wandered off looking always looking till she same to where marla maria stooped and poked nt at something in the debris it was round and white with cavernous eyes find and broken teeth the child recoiled the widening black pupils darkened the gray of her eyes as she stared fascinated its just like the ones we saw on the way it grandmother she asli asked ed after a horrified moment was vas ho he a german or a belgian you cant tell now marlo marle come on away from it she took the little J M x r r e a I 1 f zo V Z r j f I 1 1 Z where prosperous bel ones hand and together they tramped through the rank yellow water grass the tired fired old woman who longingly remembered the town ton that had been leveled powdered to nothing by the alie fire of the heavy guns and the child who gazed with scarce believing store when they told her this place had been her home she had heard a lot of about home in the few years 0 of f her life her grandmother had t told 0 id h her er all about it in tho long cold nights and father and mother were they happy here those people had been in the stories too and she liked them theair yes marla maria very happy until the war came cam you told me father ever come again liga in do you think that mother will 1 I dont know dear I 1 dont know the germans tool her drove her oft off to work mork when she comes shell hell be glad to see mp me wont she yes when she comes they stopped and looked across tile the barren waste that grandmother sticking in the ground oh 01 its a tile she rubbed away the dirt it was in the kitchen wall they looked it at it together its a pretty picture it there are sonie sonic trees and theres a little girl and I 1 guess that must have been a woman and a house its broken she sat down on a trump hump of sod and put the tile upon her knees yes its broken madame ver beek watched the little girl examining the one thing left of home Mo mother therl louisa rested on her spade youve found she started eagerly louisa shook her head theres no use trying well vell never nod find it in this up heaved place levs lets go away but what are we to do 1 I do not know marla saw them making ready to depart she clasped tile the tile against her side and skipped across to where here they stood im going to take it back baab with me for mother and when she comes im going to rie it tu to hw he j madame we ought not to lot let her plan to so helena helen will never come they trudged the long way back across the battle riven rive land maria prattled of the tile shed found ill wash it nine and clean the little girl has a dirty face auntie do you spose she lived there in that piece of house bouse yes yes maybe she he did louidas Lou isas thoughts were busy elsewhere abal to do how to provide ner mother was so old the child so young it if only they had found her brothers money I 1 twilight ie LJ alii in dreary gray thea il ei ecaca tuii icil ine ilie little railroad hut a new built siding where nobody lived about her thin bent shoulders madame pulled tile the shawl ah awl more tightly slie she shivered 1 9 1 R 9 ev Z R 1 14 4 za t j P the wrecked home as the damp and chilly wind cut through her threadbare garments louisa put her arm within her mothers and they stood between maria and the alvind ind c v back to ypres cypres the putting puffing engine took them and then they had another deary v walk alk to where they lived out near the ed edge ge of town one by one the clouds up in the sky faded and floated off and left the stars and moon to watch the drooping trio find their way the women were both silent though their thoughts ran in a never ending whirl of how and when marla maria dragged between them half asleep at last they reached the ans used to live place they now called home and they were glad to sink upon their beds of straw aud and sleep and each one dreamed the gray haired woman of ii 11 happy past louisa of innumerable fiends that tortured her with worry pointed spears maria of a tile that came to we 1 0 0 0 0 ithe the heavy sky of bleak november hound the world its pall tinli 1 l awakened wakened from froin her restle restless ss qs sleep another iother day to bleet lach cach day beamed d lung luas and yet they thay passed tuo quickly as hie lie winter inter cance caiua she moved about the tic room on tip too wily why wake the other two the more her mother slept the less shed think about the future with an empty purse her gloomy gloom y thoughts were startled by a knock I II clenel lelene I 1 louisa I 1 that was all until the mother held marla maria in her arms albins her baby grown into a little girl madame awakening thought that dreams we were re fooling ler her and then they all sat speechless so fined fil ledwith with things to say they could not talk ive hunted for you for a long iong time nt at last helene began when I 1 came back where have you been not where I 1 would have gone but b ut let the past lie still I 1 came back home as quickly as they let me free but home was gone and then I 1 looked for you last night some people over you the they used to live near us told me you were here then you were home before us yes I 1 was home I 1 found the money paul pali had you found the money 1 both the w women omen gasped oh I 1 found the money the box bos lay in full view upon the gr ground aroun oun I 1 found the money but I 1 find my famili nor my how home a broken piece of tile was all I 1 found 1 I found one too I 1 saved it just for you marla maria ran to get it from the cupboard look your piece fits with ith mine it makes the picture a woman and a little girl you and me inc one corners gone though yet A man stood there before a hoe 11 her mother said |