Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/257

Rh "What in the world is that?" asked Grandmother.

"You see, Grandma, he who sits at the end of the bench watches those that sit near him, and when they do not behave he puts down their names," explained Barunka.

"It seems to me that in our village they called him a monitor, but the monitor was always one of the best boys in the whole school, and this honor was not conferred upon any one the first day he came to school."

"Indeed, and didn't Anton Kopriva twit us with it on our way home and say that if we were not Proshek's children, the schoolmaster wouldn't make such a fuss over us," complained Barunka.

"Don't you believe that!" said Grandmother, "the schoolmaster will make no exceptions with you; when you deserve it he will punish you as quickly as he would Anton; he showed you this favor to make you like to go to school, and to have you behave well. What did you learn?"

"Dictando," replied Barunka and the boys together.

"What's that?"

"The schoolmaster reads to us and we write it down, and then we must translate it from German into Bohemian and from Bohemian into German."

"Do those children understand German" asked Grandmother, who, like the Princess, wanted to know the why and wherefore of everything.

"Well, Grandma, nobody knows any German but us, because we studied it at home and Papa speaks to us in German; but it makes no difference,