Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/257

 or some other maiden, had seen him, and had heard his passionate speech, even though she had not felt so patriotic as Lenka, she could scarcely keep her heart calm, and leave it closed before him. How then Lenka, that Cinderella in the registrar’s home, to whom but few paid notice, and whom no one appreciated!

Her parents died early, and the orphan was taken into the care of her uncle, a priest in mountain village. He was an older brother of Lenka’s mother, and one of those patriots who, in the sad times of almost total want of national consciousness, quietly but beneficiently worked for the good of their people.

Lenka was a ward of such a patriotic priest. When her foster-father and benefactor died, he left her his library, and a modest fortune besides. She was then taken into the home of the registrar Roubinek, who was a younger brother of the deceased priest and Lenka’s mother. She had lived in the house of her second uncle now for a year, being a companion and helper of Miss Lotty, who was the darling of Mrs. Roubinek.

An hour passed, and Vavřena, having finished the teaching, returned to the parlor, ready to depart. But. Mrs. Roubinek did not let him go so easily. She liked to converse with him, and as usual she began to speak in her mixed manner. Now she said something in Bohemian, and again embellished her remark with German.

She asked the instructor if he enjoyed the unusually beautiful day, and related to him where she and Lottynka had been, and how delightful it was in the park. She did not forget to mention how the daughter was enraptured with all that beauty: “Sie war hin von Bewunderung!” (She was lost in admiration) she added.

“And it is only April! What then will May be!” remarked Lotty.

Vavřena stirred a little.

“I do not know what entered the minds of those officials! The first of May! What a joy it used to be. Diese Majales!”

“And will they be forbidden this year again, Mr. Vavřena?” asked Lotty.

“How could they be held! When last year they were not permitted, this year they surely will not be,” answered her mother.

“But perhaps they still will be held!” answered the philosopher.

“Oh!” Lotty sighed blissfully, looking inquiringly at the young man.

“That’s how it should be, too! Ever since the philosophical school has been here, they were held regularly. Es ist ihr Vorrecht!” (It is their privilege).

“Oh, if they only were!” repeated the daughter. Her wide opened eyes dreamingly gazed into space, as if she saw there all the delights of that student celebration.

“Exert yourself, Mr. Vavřena, that ‘majales’ be permitted to the philosophers.”

“I also am thinking of it, madam—,” and he smiled.

When he was taking his leave, his last glance fell on the busy Lenka. She perceived it well, and her heart leaped joyously.

“Oh, now I remember what Mina told me this morning about Mr. Vavřena,” exclaimed Lotty vivaciously.

“Well—.”

“That Mr. Vavřena would be handsome and all that, if he weren’t so stolz, so könnte man ihn ausstehen.” (so proud, so that one could endure him).

“Oh, that is only envy and Eifersucht.” (Jeallousy).

During June the pitiable situation of the Czechoslovak soldiers in Siberia has been forcibly brought to the attention of their countrymen in America. A number of couriers passed through this country recently on their way to Bohemia; they voiced eloquently the complaints of their comrades who were left behind with no definite word, as to when they would get back to their families. Letters from Y. M. C. A. workers were to the same effect: the boys believe that they have been forgotten, that nobody is interested in their fate, that their own government sends them nothing but vague promises. They cannot under stand, why they are not recalled, since they are doing no fighting any longer. Above all they cannot understand, why they get no news from home. The majority of them have been away from their homes for nearly, five years; many were caught by the outbreak of the war, as they were finishing their three year service in the Austrian army, so that they have been eight years under arms. And although the Czechoslovak Republic has been in existence since October 28, they have not received a single letter from home; they have not yet received a single newspaper from the old country. They do not even get any regular bulletins of events in the liberated fatherland, so that with the exception of an occasional brief cable that reaches Omsk they hear nothing of what goes on in the Czechoslovak Republic.

The boys would not be human, if they did not kick; and one does not envy the lot of their leaders who are trying to keep them contented and preserve discipline. At the same time the difficulties of the Czechoslovak government with regard to the Siberian situation are enormous; it cannot recall 55,000 veterans from Siberia with-