noon
festoons , pealing bells , children and young ladies strewing flowers ! And our good people did not receive us in so festive a manner through compulsion , or in accordance with an old custom , but because their hearts impelled them ; for they had already perceived that the young king , your noble father , would also be their benefactor ; they loved and worshipped their king , and , in their kindness , transferred part of their love and veneration to myself . We had already passed through Stargard ; the king had preceded me to Coeslin , and I was following him . At noon I arrived in a large village at no great distance from Coeslin . All the peasants and peasant-women came to meet me , dressed in their holiday attire , and the supervisor of the village , to whose hat a large bouquet had been fastened , stepped up to the carriage to deliver an address to me . It contained but a few artless words ; the kind-hearted man begged me , in the name of the people , to do their village the honor to alight , and partake of some refreshment , for they desired to entertain the `` mother of the country , '' that the inhabitants of the cities might not deem this an exclusive privilege . You may imagine that I allowed the gentleman to conduct me to the farm-house where the entertainment had been prepared .