Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/354

348 sought refuge with Grandmother when her father forbade her to love a poor but handsome youth. Grandmother knew how to "set the father's head upon the proper handle," as the miller himself declared; and when in after years his daughter was happy and the business, under the management of an industrious and enterprising son-in-law, prospered, the miller would say: "Grandmother was right; God follows the poor with his blessing."

The children of the young women loved Grandmother as if they were her own grandchildren; they knew her by no other name than Grandma. When, two years after Christina's wedding, the Princess returned to the castle, she sent at once for Grandmother and showed her a beautiful boy, the son of the Countess, who, a year after her marriage, had died, leaving the bereaved husband and the Princess this child. Grandmother took it in her arms, and her tears fell upon its silken robe as she thought of the young, good, and beautiful mother; but laying it again in the arms of the Princess, she said in a low tone: "Let us not weep. She is in heaven; the world was not for her. God loves those the most whom he calls away when they are the happiest, and your Grace is not left desolate.

People did not know how Grandmother was failing; she alone felt it. She would often say to Adelka, pointing to an old apple tree that year by year grew dryer and put on its green foliage more sparingly: "We are alike; we shall probably go to sleep together." One spring, when all the other trees were clad in their green livery, the old apple tree stood there alone, without a single leaf. It was dug up and used for fuel. The same spring, Grand-