Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/61

Rh "A hare!" thought the mother, "where would they get a hare? I hope Kuderna hasn't taken to poaching; he'd get himself into trouble if he did."

When Celia, Kuderna's eldest daughter, came over with the baby—that girl always carried a baby, for a little one came to the flax mill each year—the miller's wife asked her: "Cilka, what did you have good for dinner, to-day?"

"Oh nothing, only potatoes," replied the girl.

"What! nothing but potatoes? Manchinka said your mother gave her a piece of hare, and that it was very good."

"O, I beg you to excuse me, that wasn't a hare, that was a cat; Daddy got it at Red Hura; it was fat like a pig. Mammy fried out the grease, and Daddy will rub himself with it; the blacksmith's wife told him to do it when he began to cough, so he should not get consumption."

"God save our souls!" exclaimed the horrified woman, spitting with disgust.

"Oh, but you don't know how good they are! but squirrels are better still. One day Daddy met the forester's apprentice carrying three squirrels which he had shot for his owl; he asked him for them, because he had heard that their flesh was better than that of hares, since they live on nothing but hazel nuts. The apprentice said it was so, and gave them to him. Daddy took them home and skinned them. Mammy roasted them and cooked some potatoes, and we had a very good dinner. Sometimes Dad brings us crows, but they are not very good. But not long ago we had a feast! Mammy brought a goose from the manor. The girl killed it in stuffing it with meal rolls to fatten