"But do you like the city? It is noisy and dirty. You will not be free as on the wild," said the peasant's wife.
"I shall like it not at all," said the boy. "But there is nothing else."
"If Marushka will come and live with me I will care for her as my child," said the shepherd's wife. "She shall have clean clothes and plenty to eat and a garden with flowers. Will you come, little one?"
Marushka looked up into the kind face and smiled. "I will come if Banda Bela may come also," she said. The shepherd laughed.
"I told you, Irma, it was useless to take the one without the other. Take both. Banda Bela will serve you well, of that I am sure."
"That I will," said the boy heartily. "Only take care of Marushka and sometimes let me play my music and I will do all that you tell me."
"In this world one can but try," said the shepherd's wife, "then see if good or evil come. I have not the heart to leave these two waifs to starve on this great plain. Come, Emeric, the horses! It will be night before I reach home and there will be much to do."
Almost before the children knew it they found themselves seated beside the shepherd's wife as the cart was whirled along in the opposite direction from which they had come.
They passed country carts made of a huge pine beam with a pair of small wheels at either end. Gay parties of peasants were seated on the pole, the feet braced against a smaller pole.