Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/303

Rh away her eyes. When she met Kuderna, who was watching the fields, she would say: "God blesses the country with abundant harvest; may he also keep it from all damage!"

"Yes, there is some reason to fear; the weather for several days has been unusually hot," he replied as he turned his eyes to study the clouds.

Whenever they passed the field of peas, Kuderna picked Adelka's apron full of nice green pods; quieting his conscience by observing that the Princess would not object, seeing she was so fond of Mr. Proshek's children.

Barunka did not bring Adelka any more gum or sweet wood from school, for as soon as the cherry woman took her stand near the schoolhouse, she brought each day a kreutzer's worth of cherries; or when she took the path through the oak grove, she gathered strawberries for her little sister, putting them in a little birch-bark basket that she had made for the purpose. Later in the season she brought huckleberries, and finally hazel nuts. Grandmother gathered mushrooms and taught the children to know the good from the poisonous. July was over, and at the beginning of August the Princess would come, and also their father. In addition to these pleasures, vacation was close at hand. Mrs. Proshek went to the castle to see that all was in readiness for the arrival of the mistress, and the gardener almost ran his legs off in his anxiety lest the garden should not be in the best possible condition. He scrutinized the sward to see that no blade of grass was higher than another; he raised up the leaning branches of the plants for fear some weed might still be hidden beneath them. Preparations