lko carried at
once to the new kitchen cupboard. Some things he hung up near the
stove. One of the table-cloths he spread over the table. After he had
found the broom which his father had made from the branches that he
had cut and brought, he swept the kitchen, for with the carrying in of
so many things, much dirt had accumulated. He ran with the pitcher for
water, and placing one of the bouquets in it, set it on the covered
table. Just as he had finished, his comrades came running, hot and
perspiring. Ondrejko carried the crock with a narrow neck, completely
covered with braided straw, and the covered can of milk. Petrik
carried quite a heavy bundle on his back.

When the nurse returned from the storeroom she could hardly believe
her eyes. On the table on a wooden plate lay the black-bread, salt was
in a new wooden bowl, cheese in a dish, on a plate there was fresh
golden butter, and in a can, milk. The fire that had gone out in the
kitchen stove, was burning brightly now. The boys sat on the bench by
the window, Palko standing in front of them.

"Are you already here, my children?" asked the nurse; "and what have
you brought?"

"Bread and salt, as you have asked. The whey is in the crock. The milk
we brought for you, because you are not sick," explained Petrik.

Ondrejko added, "It may be that your lady will not want to drink the
whey today, and that you will make coffee instead, for yourself."

"For you," Petrik added, "there is also butter and cheese. Palko is
able to do this because some day all this around here will be his."

The boys were surprised when the eyes of the nurse suddenly filled
with tears. She wiped them off and kissed the small messengers.

"You are right, Ondrejko, today I will fix coffee, and you all will
take breakfast with me. In the meantime perhaps my lady will be up."

Before the coffee was finished, the boys found out that the nurse's
name was Moravec and that they could call her Aunty; that she was born
in the mountains of northern Bohemia in just such a cottage as this.
She went to America with her parents, and was married there, but when
her husband died, and not having her own daughter any more, she had
served this lady ten years, and took care of her like her own child.
Before the boys realized it, each had in front of him a beautiful
cup with a golden edge, full of fragrant coffee, and a big piece of
Bohemian bun. After all, they had found the seemingly lost bag, and
really, i