In half an hour the shed was swept out, the cots set up, the bedding provided. Then, leaving the little family to do what they would, the two American ladies started out to find quarters for themselves. After a little supper in the open Lucie went to explore, leaving Paulette to house her live stock. Pom Pom, in puzzled curiosity, went nosing all over the place. Lucie found the steps of the house and mounted them. The door was shivered to bits. She crept within the walls, avoiding bits of glass, slivers of wood, picking her way from spot to spot, trying to discover some token of what had been hers. She was gone so long that Odette and Paulette went to look for her. They found her sitting on the topmost step, her head buried in her arm. She was sobbing her heart out, for the fragment of stuff which she clutched in her hand was a bit of the very dress her mother had worn the morning before she went away. CHAPTER XVIII THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME There was more of the town undisturbed than at first was apparent. To be sure the houses so left had been looted and everything of value carried off, but it was astonishing how soon Mrs. Graves and Miss Lowndes were able to make themselves comfortable with what was left and with what they were able to send for, yet it was very far from luxury at the best, and in great contrast to what they were accustomed to in their own homes. Refugees came creeping slowly back to be reëstablished as soon as possible. Many had been living in the cellars under the factories during the time of bombardment and afterward when the Germans were in possession. They did not complain of much ill treatment, but were underfed and sickly, telling many tragic tales of petty tyrannies and of the deportation of all the able-bodied persons in the town, as well as of the destruction of all the fine machines in the factories.