The Anniversary Of A Maidservant Ann
Mrs Kraus - the wife of commercial advisor and chairman of Society For Protection Of The Domestic Servants - was making a congratulation speech for the enterprise, planned tomorrow.
Tomorrow maidservant Ann will celebrate her 50-year anniversary of her faithful service. She had lived and worked at Mrs Tih, the secretary of Society For Protection Of The Domestic Servants and the wife of commercial advisor Mr Tih for all the 50 years; the maidservant Ann was brought up two generations and was already 75 years old. She has always been virtuous and never became lazy or greedy.
Tomorrow she will receive a small golden cross, a golden coin of 10 kronas, a cup of hot chocolate and two pieces of cake. But it is not all. She will listen an amazing speech of Mrs Kraus and also will receive a new prayer-book from her hostess, Mrs Tih.
Mrs Kraus worried about the speech. If she could write this speech faster! Why should she waste her time and rack her brains because of some maidservant? She already has written several pages, but those aren't good enough.
Mrs Kraus was walking around the room and she was thinking what about could she talk. Only not about the servants who consolidate in trade-unions and demand vacations and supper on the account of their employers.Really, crazy times! Just a while ago it was allowed to slap a maidservant and give her the bum's rush, now the servants sue a hostess for that!
Mrs Kraus subsided at the writing table and rubbed her forehead with the migraine pencil.
For example, her own maidservant. That scoundrel has obtained a boyfriend, who delivers books for her. That panhandler wants to study! And Mrs Kraus became so nervous that she had to use a migraine pencil again.
All of this can completely break down nerves, and no progress with that speech. She has spoken already several times in such enterprises, but she wanted to say something new this time. Perhaps it would be better to start with mention of God. God the lord - that's the best thing for the maidservants. Pray God and keep working! If she could say it in Latin! Mrs Kraus will ask her husband when he will return home from the work. Yes, the speech must be started with these words!
She started to write:
“Pray God and keep working! Such a beautiful thought! It is impossible to work diligent and to be virtuous without a prayer, and see - maidservant we are congratulating today is a personification of this truth. All the 50 years she has prayed God and He had led her through all the temptation of the world. Today she celebrates a 50 years of continuous work, and she's got a great award in the heaven and also on the earth...(there the kingdom of heaven, but here - small golden cross, golden coin of 10 kronas, a cup of hot chocolate and two cakes.)
Pray God and keep working! Our jubileé Ann has worked for 50 years and now she gathers the fruits of her buxom work (10 kronas in gold - it is 1000 cents; it is 20 cents per year). 50 years she has prayed God, she never attended dances, theatres or read worldly books. She has read only her prayer-book which taught her to love and venerate her employers and to obey them without any objections. All these 50 years the prayer-book had led her towards the noble purpose "Pray God and keep working!" She has been thrifty and attentive on her every step. She has never thrown out spoons together with slops, never cheated herself with incorrect hopes, she has never been haughty, she has never been in friends with the maidservants of other houses, she always avoided senseless talks, she has never told tales about her hostess, and the prayers has always kept her from stealing.
Honored ladies, look at that old woman. She believed humility is worth of gold, she suppressed every evil appetence in her heart, she was a true god-fearing believer, clement and heart-pure, she always kept in mind nullity of the world, she always remembered about death, doomsday and retribution of the sins in her every free minute. She worship God the Lord with heart afire before she went sleep and asked Him to lead her on the right ways.
Two generations of the family of the commercial advisor Tih have seen her obedient and humble. Being pure in her heart and good in her intentions, she was thankful for every morsel, kindly given by her employers, and always kissed the hand of her hostess in deep reverentialness. So she spent 50 years in this family where she never made any troubles, but she saintly and trustfully kept everything that was entrusted to her. So she worked for 5 guldens in month, saving this money for a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain, which she attended each year with a gracious permission of her employers. She always brought gifts for her employers when she came back as evidence of her pure heart.
She assured that she could live without food or water if only she could praise our Lord and Saviour day and night because then she would be more happier than today when she has to bother about the frail junk of her flesh.”
Mrs Kraus put away her pen for a while. How lovely it will sound tomorrow! This speech definitely will be mentioned in "Catholic News". Maybe later it will be published in booklet called "Speeches For Maidservants". Perhaps the maidservants no longer won't throw out spoons with slops if they will remember the beneficial life of the today's jubileé.
Suddenly her own maidservant came in and presented:
- Mrs Tih, wife of commercial advisor.
At the same moment Mrs Tih tumbled into the same room and fell screaming in the embrace with her chief.
- That sucks! - Mrs Tih gasped, - Can you imagine, our jubileé has died!
Then she wiped tears and continued without hiding her anger:
- I told her to bring a bag with coals upstairs from the cellar last night. I guess you understand that I have pity and I can't throw out on a street a woman of 75 years, but I also can't feed her for free. And can you imagine, this old fool fell back in cellar with all her bag of coals and so much hurted herself that even didn't live till the next morning. And like despite, just before her anniversary! That's really sucks! And I had ordered such a great dress for that enterprise... Funeral will cost me about 30 guldens, but she has saved only 25.
Mrs Kraus lifted up a migraine pencil to her aching head. She was broken. She gave a look on the described sheets of paper and said with a sigh:
- So it seems, she cut this for us on purpose!
By Jaroslav Hađek, 1908.
Translated in English by Lee and hk from Latvian edition, 2000.
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