Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/306

300 With these words she brushed away the tears that came into her eyes, folded the letter, and went to hide it in the side drawer of her chest.

The children were delighted to have their father with them. They never grew weary of looking at him, and each interrupted the other in trying to tell him all that had happened during the year, which, however, he already knew from their mother's letters. "Now you will stay with us the whole winter, won't you, Papa?" asked Adelka, coaxingly, stroking his beard, which was her favorite way of caressing him.

"And, Papa, when it is sleighing, you'll give us a ride in that beautiful sleigh, and hang the bells on the horse? Our Godfather from town came for us once in the winter; we went there with Mamma; Grandmother would not go. How it went, and how the bells jingled! People ran out to see who in the world was coming," cried Willie, and before the father could put in a word John said: "Papa, when I am big, I shall be a gamekeeper. When I leave school, I shall go to Mr. Beyer's to learn, and Orel will go the Riesenburg gamekeeper to learn."

"Very well, only you must first be very diligent in school," said the father smiling, but leaving the boy full freedom of choice.

His dear friends, the gamekeeper and the miller, came to welcome Mr. Proshek. The whole household grew happier, and even Sultan and Tyrol rushed out to meet Hector with unwonted glee, as if they wished to tell him some good news. Mr. Proshek liked them; they had not been whipped since they had killed the goslings, and whenever