AN ADVENTURE
IT was Saturday and Ruzena had just returned to the village from some
distance outside of it. She brought back some of the red sand that was
prized highly for sprinkling over the hard earthen floors of the house.
She spread it carefully and then went into the kitchen to help her
mother with the baking for the morrow.
Sunday was a blessed day in more ways than one for the villagers. No
matter how hard the work of the week had been, the Sabbath afforded
relaxation. Everybody who could went to church, and exceedingly
attractive did they look when they trooped out in twos and threes after
the service. The women especially looked like a bevy of bright flowers
in their gay attire.
There is no one national costume in Slovakia. It varies from district
to district. Here the women wore a snowy chemise with short puffed
sleeves ending in a wide ruffle. Above this ruffle was a pretty band of
hand embroidery in orange-colored silk. Over this chemise was a bodice.
The heavily starched skirt was full of tiny carefully arranged pleats
with another skirt of transparent flowery material, also pleated, worn
over, each pleat in this upper skirt being fitted into that of the
skirt beneath.
The men were quite as picturesque in high boots, and close-fitting
trousers of black cloth embroidered in black and yellow. Over the
shirt, a short sleeveless waistcoat was worn, fastened with one button.
The two rooster feathers at the back of the men's hats gave them
something of a dashing air.
The young men and boys always took their seats near the door. The
older men sat at the right of the aisle, the older women at the left.
The finery of the young married women and of the girls did not allow
them to be seated. The former stood in the aisle, the latter in rows
near the altar. When they knelt down their skirts stood out so far on
every side that no one could come near.
In the afternoon the young people paired for a dance at the pavilion in
the tavern grounds; the children wandered off for play, while the older
folks visited at one another's houses or met in the tavern to talk over
the little happenings of the week.
Wherever Ruzena was, Etelka and Marouska were also apt to be. On this
particular Sunday the three had an adventure that gave them all, but
especially Etelka, who was the most imaginative, quite a little thrill.
It was all because Jozef and one of his friends, Janik, had insisted
on following the little girls about, twitching their long hair and
playing all sorts of tricks on them. When something called the boys
away for awhile, Ruzena exclaimed:
"I wish we could hide from them!"
"I'll tell you a good place," suggested Etelka; "let's go into our
storeroom. Father put a lantern down there and we can light it and wait
until the boys give us up."
Marouska and Ruzena thought this just the thing, and away the three
hurried to the underground cellars. Every one was busy with his own
affairs, so no attention was paid to them, and they climbed down the
ladder into the dugout belonging to Etelka's parents, without being
seen. Etelka lit the lantern and then propped up the door slightly as
she had seen her mother do. The girls stood waiting and listening.
At last they heard boys' voices. "It's Jozef and Janik," whispered
Ruzena. Whether it was or not, the voices grew fainter and soon could
not be heard.
"They've passed, but if we go out they'll find us," said Marouska in
her quiet, sad little voice.
Her two friends agreed. "But," asked Ruzena, "what can we do here?"
Etelka's eyes sparkled. A bold plan had occurred to her.
"Let's explore the secret passages," she exclaimed.
"Let's!" echoed her companions delightedly yet fearfully.
"We won't go far," continued Etelka, knowing that such explorations
were considered dangerous and forbidden. "Just a little ways."
"Just a little ways!" Ruzena and Marouska again echoed breathlessly.
These so-called secret passages were very old and no one seemed to know
for certain why they had been built. The story generally accepted
was that they belonged to the time immediately following the Hussite
Wars, when many Czechs were forced to emigrate to Slovakia. While they
were allowed to come, meetings to study the Bible had to be held in
secret. These passages, connected with several of the cellars, made
such meetings possible. Although the Slovaks in the village were now
Catholics, they had not forgotten stories of martyrdom and courage
handed down from those times. They told how a pastor had traveled from
village to village hidden in a load of hay; of how a Bible was once
saved by being thrown down into a well, and many other tales.
Taking the lantern, Etelka led the way into a little opening. It
did not go far, for the earth had fallen down from the side walls,
partially blocking it.
The girls looked at one another.
"I know what we can do," suggested Ruzena. "I saw an old board in
the cellar. We can dig some of the earth away with that," and she ran
to get it. She also brought back a big wooden ladle, and with these
unusual implements, Marouska and Ruzena dug, while Etelka held the
lantern, until the obstruction could be passed. There was comparative
freedom after that for quite a distance. At one point the passage
divided into three parts. The girls chose to go into the broadest, but
scarcely had they gone twenty steps when the light in the lantern went
suddenly out.
[Illustration: "THE GIRLS HUDDLED TOGETHER, TOO MUCH FRIGHTENED TO
MOVE"]
"Oh, dear, now we're in for it," burst from Ruzena, as she felt
Marouska catch tight hold of her sleeve.
"Let's keep hold of one another and go back," suggested Etelka, her
voice trembling slightly.
It was not easy, for they had to feel their way along the wall. They
became conscious, too, that the air was bad. Once quite a bit of
earth fell down before them, but, fortunately, not enough to hurt or
stop them. It seemed to them that they had been walking very, very
long, when Ruzena broke the silence that had fallen, by volunteering:
"We must have come to where the passage divides."
"Yes, and I wonder--" Etelka did not finish, for Marouska clutched her
wildly by the arm.
"Oh, look back," she whispered fearfully.
The girls turned. Coming behind them but from another direction were
two red lights evidently carried by some person or persons.
The girls huddled together, too much frightened to move.
Suddenly Ruzena gave a funny, relieved, nervous laugh. "Why, if it
isn't Jozef and Janik!" she exclaimed aloud and then ran forward and
threw her arms about the astonished boys.
"Oh, you dears, how did you know that we were lost?"
Jozef and Janik were surprised. They had had no idea that the girls
were in the cellar. They had gone into Janik's storeroom for some raw
sour-kraut, and Janik had related how his big brother had ventured
quite a distance into one of the passage-ways the week before. "Let's
go, too," had suggested Jozef. Both boys had run home for some
lanterns, never dreaming that they should meet the girls.
"Huh," grunted Jozef, after Ruzena's embrace, not yet comprehending.
And when the boys did comprehend, well--it was rather nice to be
treated like heroes! They listened to the girls, but although they
glanced sideways now and then at each other, offered no explanations.
Then Jozef and Janik quarreled and while waiting to make up, Jozef had
an inspiration.
"The girls won't try this again," he communed with himself, "and
sometime I'll give Janik a scare by going through our passage to his.
Perhaps I'd better store a little food in it, for I might ask some of
the other boys to come in with me, and it'd be nicer to have some food
and play we're those old Hussites."
So, little by little, Jozef smuggled in food of all kinds; some
sugar, more wheat than several boys could eat, sunflower and pumpkin
seeds,--the latter considered a particular delicacy,--a small bag of
raisins and nuts, a handful of dried mixed fruit in a preserve jar, and
various other things.