Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/126

120 down saying: "So we should not carry away your Grace's sleep." The children stood still and trembling with awe, but their eyes wandered from one object to another; the Princess observing this asked, "Do you like it here?"

"Yes, ma'am," they replied in chorus.

"No wonder," added Grandmother. "They would find enough here to amuse them and they would need no coaxing to remain."

"And you? Would you not like it here, too?" asked the Princess.

"It's like heaven, still I should not want to live here," replied Grandmother.

"Why not?" asked the Princess greatly surprised.

"What should I do here? You have no housekeeping. I could not spread out my feathers here for stripping, nor take my spinning out; what could I do?"

"And would you not like to live without care and labor, and take some comfort in your old age?"

" Indeed, it will be soon enough that the sun shall rise and set over my head, and I shall sleep free from care. But as long as I live and God grants me health, it is fitting that I labor. An idler costs too much when he costs nothing. Besides, no one is wholly free from care, one has this cross, another that, but all do not sink beneath its weight."

Just then a small hand turned aside the curtain at the door; and there appeared the lovely face of a