But they found out nothing, for when they asked the children who their mother was they said, “She is mamma, and we are Blanche and Edmund.”
So still they wondered and still they did not know. But they were glad she lived among them, because they had grown to love her very much. She was kind and charitable toward every one in the village. She gave food to the poor and took care of the sick, and the peasants repaid her with many kindnesses. They gave her game they killed in the forest, and when spring came and the snow melted, the village children roamed the woods for the earliest violets and cowslips, and brought them to her door.
These acts of kindness touched her, and the morning before Easter she thought, “I must do something to make them happy.” But what could it be? She couldn’t give them a feast, because, although she had plenty of money, it was impossible to get any meat in the village; and she couldn’t give them presents, because there was no place to buy them. She had nothing but eggs, which she thought would be no treat at all. Then an idea came to her. Calling Marie, the maid, she told her of it and they merrily went to work.
They went into the woods and gathered roots, moss, and berries such as were used for dyeing in those days. They made cakes and custards. They colored eggs red, blue, green, orange, and lilac, and planned to give the people a grand surprise. Late in the afternoon little Blanche and Edmund went out through the village and stopped at every house, saying, “Mamma invites you, you and all your family, great and small, to a feast at our house tomorrow. Come after the mass.”
Everybody accepted the invitation. They had never been to a real feast, and to go to one at the house of the lovely stranger would be fine indeed. They took out their best holiday attire, polished their shoe buckles until they shone, and made ready for a gala time, and on Easter morning a line of men, women, and children went from the chapel to the cottage of the lady.
She met them at the door and led them into the garden, where two long tables were spread. The parents were told to sit down, but she said to the children, “It is not time for you to eat yet. Go into the woods with Edmund and Blanche, and make little nests of moss. Put them under the trees, and be sure to remember where you left them.”