Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/212

206 went from village to village, it often happened that one was frightened here and another there; and when once they started to talk about it, there was no end to the stories, for each one knew several similar instances. The Kramolna thieves, going to prison in the spring and returning in the fall,—people said they had been at school, for they always learned something,—often furnished topics for conversation. Speaking of them, they began to talk of thieves in general, and then they related stories of bands of robbers. The children sat as still as mice, but for the whole world they would not have ventured out of doors. For this reason, Grandmother was never pleased with such conversation; still she could not stem this general current of thought.

After St. Martin's there was a market in town. Mrs. Proshek, taking Betsey and Vorsa with her, went there to buy crockery, and whatever else was needed for the winter. The children awaited their mother's return with the greatest impatience, for she always brought them some toys and gingerbread; and Grandmother got each year woolen stockings, a pair of fur-lined shoes, and half a dozen strings for her spinning wheel.

As she was putting them away in the side drawer in her chest, she would say to John: "If it were not for you, one string would be all I'd want."

This time Adelka got a wooden block on which was the alphabet, "To-morrow, when the schoolmaster comes, you can begin to learn; you don't know what to do with yourself while the others are studying; and since you remember the Lord's