Page:The disobedient kids and other Czecho-Slovak fairy tales.pdf/42

 "I don't care anything about that. Have you seen two children pass by here"? and with each question, he grew more and more angry.

"And after we have spun some fine garters, we will wind the rest of the thread on spools."

"Tell me, woman, have you seen two children pass this way?"

"When we have wound the thread on spools, we shall then weave some beautiful fine linen."

"I don't care any thing about the linen. I ask you again, have you seen two children go by here?”

"When we have woven the linen, we shall bleach it. Then we shall cut it out for little shirts, swaddling clothes, skirts and aprons."

"Are you deaf", he yelled, "Have you seen two children go by?"

"Oh yes, oh yes, what are we going to do with it? Finally we shall make tinder from it. Then the flint, when it strikes will make a tiny spark. The fire of God will not consume it. The fire will become smoke, the smoke wind. That is the end of my story."

"I did not ask you any thing about that", thundered the old man. What I want to know, did you see two children pass this way?"

"Children, children? You should have told me that in the first place. Of course I saw them. They went that way, by the path through the fields, down to the brook where the willows are, but you will never catch them, for they flew like hawks."

At this the woman showed the man the opposite side to which she had directed the children. Then the old man recognized that he had been out-witted. He frothed with rage and turned back home. When he had gone, the woman disappeared from the field and the children reached home in safety. The father was very glad to get them back.