Atondido Stories
With a heavy heart he went by the fields and the barns that
had once been his own and entered the house of his old friend,
the burgomaster.
“God bless you, neighbor,” he said to the burgomaster’s
wife. “My wife sends her greeting and bids me tell you that God
has given us a little daughter whom she wants you to hold at the
christening.”
The burgomaster’s wife looked at him and laughed in his
face.
“My dear Lukas, of course I should like to do this for you,
but times are hard. Nowadays a person needs every penny and
it would take a good deal to help such poor beggars as you. Why
don’t you ask some one else? Why have you picked me out?”
“Because my wife was godmother to your child.”
“Oh, that’s it, is it? What you did for me at that time was a
loan, was it? And now you want me to give you back as much as
you gave me, eh? I’ll do no such thing! If I were as generous as
you used to be, I’d soon go the way you have gone. No! I shall
not walk one step toward that christening!”
Without answering her, Lukas turned and went home in
tears.
“You see, dear wife,” he said when he got there, “it turned
out as I knew it would. But don’t be discouraged, for God never
entirely forsakes any one. Give me the child and I myself will
carry it to the christening and the first person I meet I shall take
for godmother.”
Weeping all the while, the wife wrapped the baby in a piece
of old skirt and placed it in her husband’s arms.
On the way to the chapel, Lukas came to a crossroads where
he met an old woman.
282