Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/241



PRING was coming on apace. The people were working in the fields; upon the hillsides lizards and snakes basked in the sun, so that the children, going out to gather violets and lilies of the valley were often frightened by them; but grandmother told them they had nothing to fear, for before St. George's such creatures were not poisonous, and could be handled with impunity; but when the sun was high, then they had poison in them, In the meadow behind the dam were seen blossoming the ox-eye daisies and larkspurs, on the hillside liver wort and the golden primroses. The children gathered young leaves for soup and brought nettles for the goslings; and whenever Grandmother entered the stable she promised Spotty that she should soon be taken out to pasture. The trees quickly put on their green leaves, the mosquitoes sang merrily in the air, the lark winged his way high up into the clouds, so that although the children often heard the little singer they never could see him; they also listened to the cuckoo and called into the woods: "Cuckoo, cuckoo, tell us how many years we shall live?" Sometimes she would coo, but sometimes she refused, and Adelka scolded, saying that it was just out of spite. The boys taught Adelka to make willow whistles; when her whistles wouldn't sound they told her it was because while knocking the bark to loosen it she