Page 129 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

IN THE MORNING, AFTER ROLL CALL AND BREAKFAST WERE
over, they got their first lesson at the midden.
"Commandant!" a man called across the wire fence
from the men's camp.
"Commandant coming!" A woman took up the cry.
"He is coming," Rivka said urgently to Hannah and
Shifre, who were standing near the cauldrons, where
they had been helping dish out the watery soup. "Do
what I do."
Rivka put her hands up to her mouth as if shouting,
but instead made a penetrating clucking noise by placing
her tongue against the roof pf her mouth. From all over
the camp came the same clicking, as if crazed crickets
had invaded the place. The small children, alerted by
the sound, came scrambling from everywhere. They
raced toward the midden heap behind the barracks.
Even the camp guards joined in, alternately clucking
and laughing, waving the children on toward the gar-

122