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Toward evening, Junior Lieutenant Shilina and the doctor Sofia Margolina convinced the children to go with them to the base hospital. First, however, they had to promise that after a bath, the children would be able to return to their home. It took a long time to win the children over. They looked at the women warily and shook their heads uncertainly. Major Margolina frowned and threw up her hands, unable to figure out why these foundling children should be so incorrigible and what it was that they wanted. The American and the interpreter, however, had guessed at the real reason: the children were worried about abandoning the German to the whims of fate; they realized that he would not be able to survive on his own.
All through the previous fall, winter, and spring, the children had t
