This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
276
CZECHOSLOVAK STORIES

Beyond the school, Nešněra’s wife, with the money left her after the death of her husband, built a new cottage for her children. The older one of the boys when he had grown up and attended the required schools, became teacher in “Nešněra’s school.” The younger one devoted himself to farming the home fields and thus both remained on the native soil of their fathers.

To-day the older of the two is in charge of the schools, for the community has grown and prospered and there was need of more teachers for the increased number of children. The younger brother became mayor of the town. Both are the most zealous advocates of love for that land which our fathers by the sweat of their brows have earned and by their blood have hallowed for us as our heritage. And, in truth, I think that in that community it would be impossible for an enemy outsider to buy enough land to hold so much as a post on which the one selling it might follow the example of old Nešněra.