Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/305

 heaven, the laverock which fluttered like a singing messenger from one to the other.

Staza led Frank to the cemetery whenever a new grave was delved. There they heard from the lips of Bartos the life history of the defunct, there they squatted together, slept side by side, and were “faithful little spirits.” Frank again reconducted Staza to the field when he found a new bird’s nest, when he had discovered any young quails, or when he wished to show her how the partridges sit. Here again he narrated to her the whole life history of these creatures, so far as he knew it, and when they sat by the hedgerow during the narration, it seemed to them like fairy land.

Staza came for Frank whenever the bees winged their way to the clover which bloomed on his grandfather’s grave, in order, as she said, that Frank might see whether they were the bees from his grandfather’s hives. And then Frank sat beside his grandfather’s grave and Staza beside the grave of her mother, and they were at home.

Then again Frank led Staza to the farmstead, to those hives which were now his own, and they observed in which direction the bees flew away and whether they went to his grandfather’s grave. Then the two children settled themselves in the chambers by the coach house, and burst forth into story telling just as musicians burst forth into song and melody.