Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/266

260 there two years, and thus have been freed from the army. It grieves me the more when I think that it was all on my own account."

"My dear girl, why should you blame yourself? would this daisy at your feet be to blame if two, wanting it, should quarrel over it? I, too, should have to blame myself that I brought my husband into a similar difficulty, the case was almost like yours. Dear child, do you suppose that when a person is carried away by anger, jealousy, love, or any other passion, he has the time to take council with reason? At that moment he doesn't care if he should die! And besides the best and noblest characters have their weak moments."

"Grandma, last year, on Mr. Proshek's holiday, you told me that your husband did something similar, and that he suffered for it, and now you've referred to it again. I forgot all about it. Please tell me about it now. Our time will pass away, our thoughts will be turned to other matters, and it is so pleasant to sit here under the lilacs."

"Well, perhaps I will," replied Grandmother. "Barunka, go see that the children do not go near the water."

Barunka obeyed, and when she was gone, Grandmother began:

"I was a grown up girl when, in 1777, Maria Theresa began that war with the Prussians. They had a misunderstanding about something, and the Emperor Joseph came with an army to Jarmirn, and the Prussians took their stand on the boundary. The fields around us were full of soldiers, and the villages, too. We had several privates and an officer quartered at our house. The officer was a man