The widow said: “Alas! where shall I go to sell my blankets?’ Just then we saw a gentleman coming from the Pies directly toward us. He carried something in his hand resembling a flute; from time to time he put it up to his face and turned round and round.

“‘O look!” I said to the widow. “That must be some musician; he is playing on a flute and dancing to his own music.’

“‘You foolish girl, that is not a flute and he is no musician. Most likely that is some gentleman whose business it is to oversee the building; I often see them walking about here. He has a sort of tube, in that tube a glass, and he looks through that. They say he can see a great ways, and every-where, and whom and what he wants.’

“‘Oh, Mrs. Novotny, if he saw us when we were putting on our shoes!’ I said.

“‘Well, and what if he did? That isn’t anything to be ashamed of,’ she replied.

“While we were thus talking, the gentleman reached our side. He had on a gray coat and a three cornered hat, beneath which was his cue with a bow at the end. He was quite young and handsome as a picture. ‘Where are you going and what have you there?’ he asked, as he stopped near us. The widow said she was taking her work to sell at Pies.

“‘What kind of work?’ he further asked.

“‘Woolen blankets, sir; they make good coverlets for soldiers; perhaps you might like one,’ said she, quickly opening her bundle and spreading out the blankets one by one. She was a good woman, this widow, but when she tried to sell anything she was extremely talkative.

“‘Your husband makes these, does he not?’ asked the gentleman.

“‘He used to make them, dear sir: but at harvest time it will be two years since he made his last blanket. While he worked, I sometimes helped and so learned the trade, and now I find it very profitable. I always tell Mandie: ‘Only learn, Mandie; what you once learn, not even a gendarme can take away from you.’

“‘Is she your daughter?’ again asked the gentleman.

“‘No, she is not mine, but our sponsor’s child. Do not think she is too small; she is stout and willing to work. She made this blanket all herself.’ He tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a look of approbation. In all my life I never saw such beautiful eyes; they were as blue as the corn flower.

“‘And you have no children?’ said he, turning to her.

‘I have one son,’ she replied. I send him to school to Rychnov. The Lord gives him the gift of the Holy Ghost, so that learning is to him as play; he sings well in the choir. I’m trying to save a few groschen, so that I can send him to study for the priesthood.’

“‘But suppose he refuses to be a priest?’

“‘O sir, he will not refuse; George is a good lad,’ replied the widow.

“In the meantime I had been looking at the tube and wondering how he looked through it. He must have noticed this, for all at once he turned to me and said: ‘I suppose you would like to know how one looks through this telescope, is it not so?’ I blushed, but dared not look at him. The widow Novotny spoke up: ‘Mandie thought that that was a flute, and that you were a musician. But I told her what you were.’

“‘And you know it?’ he asked smiling.

“‘Well I do not know your name; but of course you are one of the men that come here to oversee the workmen, and you look at them through that tube, is it not so?’

“The gentleman laughed till he held his sides. Then he said: ‘The last, mother, is correct.’

Then he turned to me and said: ‘If you wish to look through this tube you may do so.’ Then he placed it to my eye, and Oh, dear people, what wonders did I see! Why, I saw into people’s windows, and could see what they were doing as if they were close by; and way off in the fields I saw people working as if they were but a few steps from me. I wanted the widow to look, too; but she declared it was not proper for an old woman to play with such things.

“‘But that is not for play, that is for use,’ said the gentleman.

“‘Well, perhaps it is, but it is not for me,’ and she could not be induced to look through it. Then I thought that I would be so glad to see the Emperor Joseph, and because the gentleman was so kind, I told him whom I’d like to see.

“‘What do you care about the Emperor?’ he asked, ‘Do you like him?’

“‘Of course I do; why shouldn’t I like him, when everybody speaks well of him and praises his goodness. Every day we ask God to bless him and his wife, and grant them a long reign.’

“He smiled and asked: ‘Would you like to speak with him, too?’

“‘God forbid! where would I turn my eyes?’ I replied.

“‘Why, you are not afraid to look at me, and the Emperor is only such a man as I?’

“‘O, sir, it is not the same,’ spoke up Mrs. Novotny. ‘His Lordship the Emperor is after all his Lordship, and that is something to say. I have heard that when a person looks the Emperor in the eye, he is seized with fever and ague.