Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/456

 42 o Readings in European History So he galloped through the gate and rode to a castle whose lord lived by fighting and gladly kept those who did knight service. There the boy joined the troop and was soon the readiest rider. No robbery was for him too small and none too great; he took horse, he took cow, he took mantle and coat ; even what another let lie, he stuffed it all in his sack. For the first year everything went to his wish. Then he began to think of home, took a furlough from court, and rode to his father's house. His sister ran to meet him and threw her arms about him. He said to her, " Gratia vestra ! " His parents came after and embraced him again and again. He shouted to his father, " Dieu vous salue!" and to his mother he spoke Bohemian : " Dobra ytra ! " Father and mother looked at each other. His mother said: " Husband, we 're out of our wits ; it 's not our child ; it 's a Bohemian or a Wend." His father cried, " It's a foreigner not my son, much as he looks like him." And his sister Gotelind said : " It 's not your son ; to me he spoke Latin it must be a priest." Now, it was late and there was no inn in the neighborhood for the boy to put up at, so he bethought him and said: "Indeed, I'm he; I'm Helmbrecht; once I was your son." His father said, " You're not he." " Yes, I am." " Well, then, name me the names of my four oxen." "Auer, Rame, Erke, Sonne ; I 've often swung my switch over them; they're the best oxen in the world do you know me now ? " So the son was well received, and a soft bed made ready by sister and mother. His mother called to her daughter, "Run, bring a bolster and a soft pillow." That was laid under his arm on the warm stove, and snugly he waited till supper was ready. It was a royal meal : fine chopped cab- bage with good meat, a fat goose roasted on the spit, chickens roasted and boiled. And his father said : " If I had wine, to-day it'should be drunk; as it is, however, drink, dear son, of the best spring water that ever flowed out of the earth." And young Helmbrecht unpacked his presents : for his father a whetstone, a scythe, and a hatchet the best