Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/57

Rh and gave them some apples or some other dainty, and good humor was at once restored. Mrs. Proshek would sometimes say: "Mother, why do you always bring them something?" but she replied: "Indeed, that would be strange, if I brought them nothing from church! We were no better." Thus the old custom was kept up.

Grandmother was usually accompanied by the miller's wife, and sometimes by some gossip from Zernov, the village nearest the mill. The miller's wife wore long petticoats, a basque, and a silver cap (a cap heavily embroidered with silver thread); she was a short, buxom woman, with pleasant black eyes, a short flat nose, smiling lips, and a pretty double chin. Sundays, she wore small pearls around her neck; on week days, garnets. She always carried a long, round basket of wicker work, in which she had such spices and herbs as are usually used by good housewives.

A short distance behind the women was seen the miller with some friend. When it was warm, he carried his light gray coat on his cane over his shoulder. On Sundays his boots were blacked clear to his ankles and ornamented at the top with a tassal, which the children greatly admired. His trousers were tucked into his boots, and on his head he wore a high cap of lamb's fleece, one side of which was adorned with a row of bows made of blue ribbon. The other neighbor was dressed in the same way, except that the long coat with deep folds behind and large lead buttons was green instead of gray, the miller's favorite color.

The people going to high mass welcomed them as they came from divine service, and they returned