Atondido Stories
“Grandmother,” he said, “will you be godmother to my
child?” And he explained to her how every one else had refused
on account of his poverty and how in desperation he had decid-
ed to ask the first person he met. “And so, dear grandmother,”
he concluded, “I am asking you.”
“Of course I’ll be godmother,” the old woman said. “Here,
give me the dear wee thing!”
So Lukas gave her the child and together they went on to the
chapel.
As they arrived the priest was just ready to leave. The sexton
hurried up to him and whispered that a christening party was
coming.
“Who is it?” he asked, impatiently.
“Oh, it’s only that good-for-nothing of a Lukas who is poorer
than a church mouse.”
The godmother saw that the sexton was whispering some-
thing unfriendly, so she pulled out a shining ducat from her
pocket, stepped up to the priest, and pressed it into his hand.
The priest blinked his eyes in amazement, looking first at the
ducat and then at the shabby old woman who had given it. He
stuffed the ducat into his pocket, whispered hurriedly to the sex-
ton to bring him the font, and then christened the child of poor
Lukas with as much ceremony as the child of the richest towns-
man. The little girl received the name Marishka.
After the christening the priest accompanied the godmother
to the door of the chapel and the sexton went even farther until
he, too, received the reward for which he was hoping.
When Lukas and the old woman came to the crossroads
where they had met, she handed him the child. Then she
reached into her pocket, drew out another golden ducat which
she stuck into a fold of the child’s clothes, and said: “From this
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