Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/137

Rh and give the children. Then we will take you to sleep up in the garret. Where do you come from?'

"'Clear from Silesia, from Niesse,' I replied. 'Indeed! That's where our Madaline is,' cried father. 'I beg you, my good woman, didn't you hear anything of her?' asked mother approaching me closely. 'Madaline Novotny, her husband is a soldier. She is our daughter, and we haven't heard for two years what she is doing and how she is. I've had bad dreams lately; not long ago I dreamed that I lost a tooth; so I have that girl and her children on my mind constantly, and I wonder whether something has not happened to George, since they have those battles all the time. God only knows why those men cannot let each other alone!'

"I wept, but the children hearing their grandmother speaking thus, pulled at my skirt and asked: 'Mamma, are these our grandmother and grandfather?' As soon as they said this mother recognized me and fell upon my neck, and father took the children into his arms; and then we told each other every thing that had happened. Betsey ran to fetch brother and sister, sister-in-law and brother-in-law, and before long the whole village was together, and not only my relatives and old friends, but everybody else welcomed me as though I had been a sister to them all, 'You did well to return home with those children,' said father; 'true, the earth is the Lord's, but one's own country is always dearest, as ours is to us, and thus it should be. As long as God gives us bread, neither you nor your children shall suffer, even if you cannot work. That which befell you is indeed a heavy blow, but