Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/205

Rh idea of the situation, every one went to work to give assistance. The guardian fires spread farther and farther—all around the harbour,  across the point and beyond the mill-stream  cove. Children ran to and fro like ants, gathering fuel; the crackling driftwood burned blue and green and golden, lifting high flames  to signal defiance to the enemy.

Scorched, smoke-begrimed, weary with toil and excitement, Billy and Sally Shute at last  made their way back to where Johann and  Captain Saulsby were still talking. A little group had gathered about them, but of these  Johann scarcely seemed aware, so intent was he  upon what he was saying.

“And they keep telling me always that I must work for the Fatherland here, or go back  to aid her at home,” he was saying as Billy  came close. “But I answered that this was my Fatherland and I had no other. Yet they keep repeating that a man can have but one,  and if it is once Germany so must it always be  Germany.”

“But you were born here,” said the old sailor, “and your father was banished from his  own country.”

“Yes, he was driven out, but he longed al-