Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/223

Rh ties, and even the poultry and cattle were not forgotten when the Christmas loaves were cut. After supper, Grandmother took a part of the contents of each dish, half of which she threw into the stream that the water might remain pure, and buried the other half under a tree in the orchard that the ground might be fertile. She brushed the crumbs up carefully and threw them into the fire, so that it should do no damage.

After the work was done, Betsey took a branch of sweet elder and shaking it, recited:

Then she listened to ascertain in what direction the dogs were barking.

In the sitting room the girls were melting together wax and lead, and the children were sailing candles in nutshells.

John secretly pushed the pan of water so that it moved, and the shells, which represented the ships of life, sailed from the edge to the center of the water; then he cried joyfully: "Look, look, I shall get far, far into the world!"

"My dear boy, when you get into the current of life, among its eddies and rocks, when the waves dash your boat hither and thither, then you will think with longing of the quiet haven from which you sailed," said the mother in a low tone, cutting his apple, "for luck," through its wide part. The seeds made a star, three of its rays being clear and sound, two imperfect and worm-eaten. Laying it