Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/230

224 and puts it back upon her head, and takes her stand in the corner of the room, by the door.

"How well those children recite!" exclaimed Vorsa; "I could listen to them the whole evening."

Grandmother, too, was not chary of her praise, and the actors, with well-filled bags, sallied into the yard. When they got behind the house they examined the contents of their bags. The food was at once divided equally among them, but the money the king put into his own pocket, saying that he had a right to do so, since as director of the troupe he had assumed all the expenses and the responsibility. After this just distribution of profits, the party started for the gamekeeper's. For several days the children kept reciting the verses and acting the part of Dorothea, but the mother could not comprehend how any one could enjoy such egregious nonsense.

One Sunday morning some time after this, a handsome sleigh was seen in Proshek's yard. When the horses stirred, their bells jingled so loudly that the crow, the winter boarder in the poultry yard, flew away to the top of the mountain ash, and the chickens and sparrows eyed the team curiously, and seemed to say: "What in the world can this mean?" It was Shrovetide, and Mr. Stanicky had come to take the Proshek family to town to spend the day with him.

Grandmother, however, would not go; she said: "What should I do there? leave me at home, such company is not for me." The Stanickys were good, pleasant people; but as they kept a hotel, all sorts of people met there, some from afar and quite