Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/243

 privileges: I was free to beat the nurse and use my youngest sister as a riding-horse. My fair hair was allowed to grow and was twisted into curls. With my bright blue eyes and a lace collar I was not unlike the princes in van Dyck’s picture. I had no difficulty in wiping out the remembrance of naughty tricks by engaging looks and rippling laughter.

The sum of my little sins increased. Once I devastated a pansy-bed and did not leave one plant alive; another time I threw a stone at the gardener’s boy and hurt his head. One day I nearly set the house on fire by a shot from a toy gun which I fired close to the curtains. As a rule allowances were made for me; only now and then, when things became too bad, my father would make his displeasure felt. But then I used to sulk, and as every one was silent when I would not speak, my father generally capitulated very soon. He would pet me and give me a penny. At this price I consented to be conciliated, for I was passionately fond of snow-cakes of which fifteen could be bought for a penny.

I was sent to school before I was ten. The masters were astonished at my precocity. But I did not like going to school. The close air of the school-rooms did not suit me, and I