My mother talks about her nursery in Pazin, the capital of Istria, where she was born in the last decade of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a certain amount of pride. A Czech couple ran it. Close to ninety years ago, my mother and one of her brothers enjoyed all kinds of colorful toys and games that would be difficult to imagine in many parts of the world even today. Having revisited some of these delights, this evening she mentioned something I had not heard from her before. The nursery, located across the street from her home, had a big metal sign above the door showing in bas-relief several children playing. An old peasant woman coming regularly to the market in Pazin would always stop in front of the nursery sign, get down to her knees in the middle of the road, press her hands together and hold them up, and pray for a while. To the amusement of the children from the nursery, the peasant woman was convinced the children on the sign represented angels.