Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/201

Rh gerbread hearts. After praying in the chapel, the pilgrims thanked their leader, the cross was placed in the chapel, the garland with streamers was hung upon the altar, and the pilgrims scattered to their respective homes.

At parting, when Christina was giving her hand to Anna, the latter noticed the silver ring that was glistening on Christina's finger, and smiling she asked: "That is not the one you bought?"

Christina blushed, but before she could reply, Milo whispered to Anna: "She gave me her heart, I gave her my hand."

"A good exchange, may God bless you," replied Anna.

At the mill, by the statue under the lindens sat the Proshek family and the miller; from time to time they turned their eyes to Zernov hill; they were waiting for the pilgrims. When the sun was sending its last rays upon the hills, and bathing the tops of the oaks and ash trees in a flood of golden light, white kerchiefs and straw hats gleamed through the green branches, and the children, who had been watching the hill most intently, cried out: "They are coming!" and started to meet them. Mr. and Mrs. Proshek and the miller slowly followed. The children hung about Grandmother and kissed her as if she had been gone a year. Barunka, with much pride, declared that she was not at all tired. Grandmother asked the children if they had missed her, and the miller’s wife asked her husband: "What’s the news?" "Our old goose lost her shoes," he replied, and added, very soberly: "Tt was a great calamity, mother."