Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/217

Rh The worst story was about Red Ridinghood. The children could not endure that one, and usually ran away; with every other story they could coax Grandmother to keep still or talk about something else, but here they did not dare to say a word unless they wanted to hear it repeated. The children finally learned to wait patiently for the spinners. The first who came were Christina and Milo, then Celia Kuderna, the friend of Betsey and Vorsa; sometimes the miller's wife came, too, with Manchinka and the gamekeeper's wife, and once a week Christina brought with her Anna, who was now the wife of Tomesh. When the spinning was over, her husband came to see her safe home.

While the women were warming themselves and getting ready for the work, they spoke of various things. One told the news from the village, another that which had been heard in town; or if there happened to be some holiday, with which there was connected some national custom or some superstition, this also furnished a topic of conversation. For example, on the eve of St. Nicholas, Christina asked Adelka if she had her stocking hung up, for St. Nicholas was already going through the village. "Grandma will hang it up for me, when I go to bed," said the child.

"You must not hang up your own stocking, it's too small. Ask Grandma to lend you hers," suggested Christina.