LOTI AND THE TIRED CHILDREN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 227, 4 March 1915, Page 6

LOTI AND THE TIRED CHILDREN.

A PATHETIC INCIDENT. 1 (Pierre Loti, the famous French writer, j tells this pathetic incident in "King j Albert's Book") "At evening in one of four southern towns, a train full of Helg.ae refugees ran into the station, and, poor martjrs, exhausted and bewildered, got on 1; slowly, one by one, on the unfamiliar platform, where French people we'e waiting to receive them. "Carrying a few provisions caught up at random, they had got into "the carriages without asking whither they were bound, urged by their anxiety to flee, to flee desperately from horror and ! death, from unspeakable mutilation and Sadie outrage—from things that 'seemed on longer possible in the world, but which, it seems, were lying dormant i.'i pietistic German brains, and had suddenly belched forth upon their land and ours like a belated manifestation of original barbarism. TWO LITTLE BOYS. "They no longer possessed a village, nor a home, nor a family; they arrived like jetsam cast up by the waters, and the eyes of all were full of anguish. Many children, litle girls whose parents had disa]>peared in the stress of fire and battle; and aged women now alone in the world, who had fled, hardly knowing why, no longer caring for life, but moved by some obscure instinct of self-preservation.

Two little creatures, lost in the pitiable throng, held each other tightly by the hand, two little boys, obviously brothers —the elder, who may lave been five years old, protecting the younger of about three. Xo one claimed them, no one knew them. How had they beon able, to understand, find in" themselves alone, that they too must get into this train to escape death? Their clothes were decent, and. their little stockings were thick and warm; clearly they belonged to humble, but careful 'parents: they were doubtless the sons of one of those sublime Belgian soldiers who bad fallen heroically on the battlefield, and whose last thought had perhaps' been one of supreme tenderness for them. 'The elder, clasping the little on-.''s hand closely, as if fearing to lose him, seemed to wake to a sense of his duty as protector, and, half asleep already, found strength to say i n a suppliant tone, to the Eed Cross lady bending over him:— " 'Madame, are they going to put us to bed soon?' 'For the moment this was all they were capable of wishing, all that they hoped for from human pity; to be put to bed. "They were put to bed at once, together, of course, still holding each other tightly by the hand. and. nestling one against the other, they fell at the same moment into the tranquil unconsciousness of childish slumber. "Once, long ago, in the China Sea, during the war, two little frightened birds, smaller cvpii than our wrens, arrived. T know not how, on hoard our ironclad, in our Admiral's cabin, and all day long, though no one attempted to disturb them, they fluttered from side to side, perching on cornices and plants. THE TWO BIRDS. "At nightfall, when T had forgotten them, the 'Admiral sent for me. it was to show me, not without emotion, the two little visitors, who had gone to roost in his room, perched ti|i»n a slender silken cord, above his lied. They nestled closely together, two little balls of feathers: touching and almost merged one in the other, and slept without the slightest fear, sure of our pity. "And these little Belgians, sleeping side by side, made me think of the two birds lost in the China Sen. There was the same confidence and the same innocent slumber—but a greater tenderness was about to watch over them."