Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/74

68 one could go a journey of twelve miles, but into which no one ever ventured on account of the damp and foul air, was built an arbor having three gothic windows. When the gentlemen from the castle went out hunting, they stopped here to eat their second breakfast. To this arbor the children directed their steps, climbing up the steep banks like chamois. Poor Grandmother got up the steep place with the greatest difficulty, all out of breath and catching hold of every shrub. "Oh, you're too much for me!" she exclaimed as she scrambled to the top.

The children took her by both her arms and led her into the arbor where they seated her in a chair. The air here was cool, and the outlook beautiful.

To the right of the arbor, could be seen the ruins of the fortress; below the fortress there was a vale in the shape of a crescent, the top and bottom of which were closed in by evergreens. On one side of those hills there was a chapel. The murmuring of the water, and the song of the birds were the only sounds heard in this solitary place.

John recollected the story of the strong Ctibor, the shepherd of Riesenburg. It was down in the meadow below that his master caught him carrying a large tree upon his shoulders. When he was asked where he had got it, he confessed that he had stolen it from the forest. His master, pleased with his candor, not only forgave him, but invited him to come to the fortress, saying that he would give him as much provision as he could carry. Ctibor was so greedy that he took his wife's nine ell feather-bed cover and went to the fortress, where they filled it with peas and hams. The knight