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diff --git a/75846-h/75846-h.htm b/75846-h/75846-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c22abd --- /dev/null +++ b/75846-h/75846-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13122 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Peasants: Autumn | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.4em; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.2em; } + .pageno { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: silver; + text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; + border: thin solid silver; padding: .1em .2em; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; } + p { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: justify; } + sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + .large { font-size: large; } + .xlarge { font-size: x-large; } + .xxlarge { font-size: xx-large; } + .lg-container-l { text-align: left; } + .x-ebookmaker .lg-container-l { clear: both; } + .linegroup { display: inline-block; text-align: left; } + .x-ebookmaker .linegroup { display: block; margin-left: 1.5em; } + .linegroup .group { margin: 1em auto; } + .linegroup .line { text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em; } + div.linegroup > :first-child { margin-top: 0; } + .linegroup .in2 { padding-left: 4.0em; } + .linegroup .in24 { padding-left: 15.0em; } + .linegroup .in4 { padding-left: 5.0em; } + .linegroup .in6 { padding-left: 6.0em; } + ol.ol_1 {padding-left: 0; margin-left: 4.17%; margin-top: .5em; + margin-bottom: .5em; list-style-type: decimal; } + div.footnote > :first-child { margin-top: 1em; } + div.footnote p { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: 0.0em; margin-bottom: 0.0em; } + div.pbb { page-break-before: always; } + hr.pb { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-bottom: 1em; } + .x-ebookmaker hr.pb { display: none; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + .figcenter { clear: both; max-width: 100%; margin: 2em auto; text-align: center; } + .figcenter img { max-width: 100%; height: auto; } + .id001 { width:300px; } + .id002 { width:100px; } + .x-ebookmaker .id001 { margin-left:31%; width:37%; } + .x-ebookmaker .id002 { margin-left:44%; width:12%; } + .ig001 { width:100%; } + .table0 { margin: auto; margin-top: 1em; margin-left: 2%; margin-right: 2%; + width: 96%; } + .colwidth10 { width:10% ; } + .colwidth20 { width:20% ; } + .colwidth68 { width:68% ; } + .nf-center { text-align: center; } + .nf-center-c0 { text-align: left; margin: 0.5em 0; } + .c000 { margin-top: 4em; } + .c001 { margin-top: 1em; } + .c002 { text-decoration: none; } + .c003 { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; width: 10%; margin-left: 0; + margin-top: 1em; text-align: left; } + .c004 { text-indent: 1.0em; margin-top: 0.0em; margin-bottom: 0.0em; } + .c005 { page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em; } + .c006 { page-break-before:auto; margin-top: 4em; } + .c007 { margin-top: 2em; text-indent: 1.0em; margin-bottom: 0.0em; } + .c008 { text-align: right; } + .c009 { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.0em; } + .c010 { margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: 1em; } + .c011 { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.0em; margin-bottom: 0.0em; } + .c012 { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-top: 0.8em; + margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 35%; margin-right: 35%; width: 30%; } + .c013 { margin-left: 2.78%; } + .c014 { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; width: 10%; margin-left: 0; + margin-top: 4em; text-align: left; } + .c015 { margin-top: 2em; } + .c016 { vertical-align: top; text-align: left; padding-right: 1em; } + .c017 { vertical-align: top; text-align: left; } + hr.pb { display: none } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75846 ***</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_i'>i</span><span class='xlarge'>THE PEASANTS</span></div> + <div><span class='xxlarge'>AUTUMN</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_ii'>ii</span> +<a href='images/i_title0.jpg'><img src='images/i_title0_s.jpg' alt='Series title page image with decorative border. THE PEASANTS; A TALE OF OUR OWN TIMES IN FOUR VOLUMES; AUTUMN; WINTER; SPRING; SUMMER' class='ig001'></a> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='xxlarge'>THE</span></div> + <div><span class='xxlarge'>PEASANTS</span></div> + <div class='c001'><span class='large'>A TALE OF</span></div> + <div><span class='large'>OUR OWN TIMES</span></div> + <div class='c001'><span class='large'>IN</span></div> + <div><span class='large'>FOUR VOLUMES</span></div> + <div class='c001'><span class='large'>AUTUMN</span></div> + <div><span class='large'>WINTER</span></div> + <div><span class='large'>SPRING</span><a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c002'><sup>[1]</sup></a></div> + <div><span class='large'>SUMMER</span><a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c002'><sup>[2]</sup></a></div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c003'> +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. <i>To be published April, 1925</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. <i>To be published July, 1925</i></p> +</div> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span> +<a href='images/i_title1.jpg'><img src='images/i_title1_s.jpg' alt='Volume title page image with decorative border. THE PEASANTS; AUTUMN; FROM THE POLISH OF LADISLAS REYMONT; ALFRED · A · KNOPF; NEW YORK MCMXXV' class='ig001'></a> +</div> +<div> + <h1 class='c005'><span class='xlarge'>THE PEASANTS</span><br> <br><span class='xxlarge'>AUTUMN</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>FROM THE POLISH OF</div> + <div><span class='large'>LADISLAS REYMONT</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_f003.png' alt='Publisher’s Logo' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='large'>ALFRED · A · KNOPF</span></div> + <div>NEW YORK      MCMXXV</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_iv'>iv</span>PUBLISHED, JANUARY, 1925, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.</div> + <div class='c001'>SECOND PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924.</div> + <div>THIRD PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924.</div> + <div>FOURTH PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924.</div> + <div>FIFTH PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924.</div> + <div>SIXTH PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1925.</div> + <div>SEVENTH PRINTING, MAY, 1925.</div> + <div class='c001'>MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> + <h2 class='c006'>PUBLISHER’S NOTE</h2> +</div> +<p class='c007'><i>The Peasants</i> has been translated from the +original Polish by Michael H. Dziewicki, +Reader of English Literature at the University +of Cracow. I wish to make special acknowledgment +to Dr. A. M. Nawench of Columbia +University for his invaluable assistance in seeing +the work through the press.</p> +<div class='c008'>A. A. K.</div> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span><span class='large'>THE PEASANTS</span></div> + <div><span class='xlarge'>AUTUMN</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>“Praised be Jesus Christ!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“World without end!—What, my good Agatha? +And whither be you wandering now?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Out into the world, please your Reverence, into the +wide world!” she answered, with a wave of her staff from +east to west.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest mechanically turned his eyes in that direction, +but closed them to the blinding sun in the western sky. +Then he said, in a lower and somewhat hesitating tone:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have the Klembas turned you out? Or is it only a +little bickering between you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She drew herself up a little and, before answering, cast +her eyes around her upon the bare autumnal fields and the +village roofs surrounded by fruit-gardens.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, they have not turned me out: how could they? +They are good folk and my close kin. And as for bickering, +there was none. I myself saw that I had better leave; +that’s all. ‘Better to leap into the deep than cumber another +man’s wagon.’... So I had to go; there was no work +for me. Winter is coming, but what of that? Are they +to give me food and a corner to sleep in while I do nothing +to earn it? Besides, they have just weaned their calf, and +the goslings must be sheltered under their roof at night, +for it is getting cold. I have to make room. Why, beasts +are God’s creatures, too.... But they are kind folk; they +keep me in summer-time at least, and do not begrudge me +a corner of their house and a morsel of their food.... And +in winter I go out into the wide world, asking +alms.... I need but little, and that little good people +give me. With the help of the Lord Jesus, I shall pull +through till spring, and put something by into the bargain. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>Surely, the sweet, good Jesus will not forsake His poor.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, that He will not,” the priest reassured her in earnest +tones, quietly pressing a small silver coin into her hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thanks, thanks, and God bless your Reverence!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She bowed her shaking head as low as his knees, while +big tears trickled down her face, a face rugged and furrowed +like newly-ploughed autumn fields.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest felt confused.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go, and God speed you on your way,” he faltered, raising +her up.</p> + +<p class='c004'>With trembling hands she crossed herself, took hold of +her wallet and her sharp-pointed staff, and started off along +the broad and deeply rutted road toward the forest, turning +now and again to glance at the village, the fields where +potatoes were then being dug, and the smoke from many +a herdsman’s fire, wafted low over the stubble.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest, who had previously been seated upon a plough-wheel, +now returned to it, took a pinch of snuff, and opened +his breviary; but his eyes would stray now and then from +the red print and glance over the vast landscape slumbering +in autumnal peace, or gaze into the pale blue sky, or +wander to his men leaning over the plough he was guiding.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hey, Valek! That furrow is crooked!” he cried out, +sitting up, with his eyes following every step of two sturdy +grey plough-horses.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Once more he returned to his breviary, and his lips again +moved, but his eyes soon unconsciously wandered to the +horses, or to a flock of crows cautiously hopping, with outstretched +beaks, in the newly-made furrow, and taking wing +when even the whip cracked or the horses wheeled round: +after which they would alight heavily in the wake of the +plough, and sharpen their beaks on the hard, sun-baked +clods just turned up.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Valek, just flick the right-hand mare a bit; she is lagging +behind.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He smiled to see her draw evenly after this correction and, +when the horses came to the roadside, jumped up to pat +their necks—a caress to which the animals responded by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>stretching their noses towards his face and sniffing +complacently.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Het—a—ah!” Valek then sang out. Pulling the silver +bright share out of the furrow, he deftly lifted up the +plough, swung the horses round, and thrust the shining +steel into the earth again. At a crack of the whip, the +horses set tugging till the cross-bar creaked again; and on +they went, ploughing away at the great strip of land which, +stretching out at right angles to the road, descended the +slope, and, not unlike the woof of some coarse hempen stuff, +ran down as far as the low-lying hamlet nestling amongst +the red and yellow leaves of its orchards.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was near the end of autumn, but the weather was still +warm and rather drowsy. The sun was still hot enough +and, hanging in the south-west above the woods, made the +shrubs and the pear-trees, and even the hard, dry clods, +cast strong, cold shadows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ineffable sweetness and serenity reigned in the air, full +of a golden haze of sunlit dust over the fields lately +harvested; while above in the azure heaven, enormous white +clouds floated here and there like great wind-tormented +snow-drifts.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Below, as far as the eye could see, lay the drab-hued +fields, forming a sort of huge basin with a dark-blue rim +of forest, a basin across which, like a silken skein glittering +in the sunshine, a river coursed sparkling and winding +among the alders and willows on its banks. In the midst of +the hamlet, it spread out into a large oblong body of water, +and then ran northward through a rift in the hills. At the +bottom of the valley, skirting the lake, lay the village, with +the sunlight playing on the many autumnal hues of its +fruit gardens. Thence, even up to the very edge of the +forest, ran the long bands of cultivated ground, stretches of +grey fields with thread-like pathways between them, whereon +pear-trees and blackthorns grew; the general ashen tint being +in places variegated by patches of gold-yellow lupines +with fragrant flowers, or by the dull silver of the dried-up +bed of some torrent; or by quiet sandy roads, with rows of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>tall poplars overshadowing them, reaching upwards to the +hills and woods.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest was suddenly roused from the contemplation +of this scene. A long, mournful lowing was heard at no +great distance, making the crows take wing and fly away +obliquely to the potato-diggings, their dark fluttering +shadows following them over the partly sown fields. Shading +his eyes with his hand, he gazed in the direction of the +sun and the forest, and beheld a little girl coming towards +him and leading a large red cow by a rope. As she approached, +she said: “Praised be Jesus Christ!” and would +have gone out of her way to kiss the priest’s hand, but the +cow jerked her away and fell a-lowing anew.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you taking it to market?” the priest asked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, only to the steer at the miller’s.—Be still, you pest! +Are you possessed?” she cried, out of breath, and striving to +master the animal, which, however, dragged her along till +both disappeared in a cloud of dust.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently there came along the sandy road, trudging +heavily, a Jewish ragpicker, who trundled a barrow so +loaded down that he had to stop for breath every now +and then.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What news, Moshek?” cried the priest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What news? Good news to those it may concern. +Potatoes, God be praised! are plentiful; there’s a good crop +of rye, and cabbages will be abundant. It’s all very well +for such as have potatoes and rye and cabbages.” He +kissed the priest’s sleeve, adjusted the barrow-strap, and +went on more lightly, his way now leading down a gentle +slope. In his wake, along the middle of the road and in the +haze of dust raised by his dragging feet, came a blind beggar, +led by a well-fed dog at the end of a string. Then +a lad carrying a bottle approached from the side of the +wood. The latter, catching sight of the holy man on the +road, gave him a wide berth and made for the village tavern +by a short cut through the fields.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A peasant from the next hamlet, on his way to the mill, +and a Jewess driving a flock of geese, then also passed by. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Each praised God; the priest exchanged some kind words +and friendly looks with them, and they went on their way.</p> + +<p class='c004'>By this time the sun was low. The priest got up and +called to Valek: “You will plough as far as the birches, +then home. The poor beasts are quite tired out.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Going along the path between the fields, he said his +Office under his breath, looking round from time to time +at the scene with fond, glistening eyes. Working-women +gleamed in red rows at the potato-diggings, and the contents +of their baskets rumbled into the carts. Here and there, +the ground was still being ploughed for sowing. On the +fallows a herd of brindled cows was feeding. The ashen-grey +hue of certain lands was beginning to take on a ruddy +tint from the blades of corn already sprouting there. On +the close-cropped, tawny grass of the meadows, the geese +showed up like white snowflakes. A cow was heard lowing +afar. Fires had been lit, and long blue clouds of smoke +trailed over the cornfields. Elsewhere harrows were at +work, a dim cloud of dust rising in the wake of each and +settling down at the foot of the hills. From beneath it, +coming as it were out of a cloud, a bareheaded, barefooted +peasant, with a cloth full of corn tied round his waist, was +pacing leisurely, taking handfuls of grain and scattering +them all over the earth with a solemn gesture, as one bestowing +a blessing. On reaching the end of the ploughed +fields, he would turn and slowly ascend the slope, his shock +of tousled hair first appearing above the sky-line, then his +shoulders, and finally his whole body, still with the same +solemn gesture, the sower’s benediction, that shed forth upon +the soil, a holy thing as it were—the golden seed which fell +in a semicircle round him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest’s pace became more and more leisurely: now he +would stop to take breath, now to look at his two grey +horses, now to glance at a few boys who were throwing +stones into a large pear-tree. They came running to him +in a body, and, holding their hands behind them, all kissed +the sleeve of his soutane.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He stroked their flaxen heads, but added a word of warning: +<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>“Have a care not to break the branches, or you will +get no pears at all next year.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We were not throwing stones at the pears,” answered one +boy, bolder than the rest; “there’s a chough’s nest up in +the tree.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest passed on with a friendly smile and was +presently among the potato-diggers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God speed your work!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May God reward you!” they replied in a chorus, and +all came up to kiss their beloved pastor’s hands.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Our Lord has given us plenty of potatoes this year, I +think,” he said, offering his open snuff-box to the men, who +respectfully accepted; refraining, however, from taking +snuff in his presence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, potatoes are as big as a cat’s head, and plenty to +each plant.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, then pigs will rise in price; you will all want to +have some to fatten.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They are dear enough as it is. There was a swine plague +last summer, and we have to buy them even in Prussia.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So there was, so there was. And whose potatoes are you +digging here?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why Boryna’s, of course.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I don’t see him with you, so I wasn’t sure.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father is only at the forest with my goodman.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, there you are, Hanka? How goes it?” he said, turning +to a handsome young woman who wore a red kerchief +round her head. She came forward, and, her hands being +soiled, threw her apron over them as she took the priest’s +hand to kiss.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, and how is your little boy whom I christened in +harvest time?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God bless your Reverence, he is well and lively.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The Lord be with you all!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And with your Reverence!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He walked away to the right, where the burying-ground, +near a road planted with poplars, lay on that side of the +village. They gazed after him in silence for some time, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>it was only when his thin and slightly bent figure had +passed the low stone enclosure and entered the mortuary +chapel, overshadowed with the yellowish and reddish foliage +of birches and maples, that they found their tongues again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There is no better man in the whole world,” said one of +the women.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, indeed,” chimed in Hanka, emptying her basketful +on to a yellow heap conspicuous on the freshly furrowed +soil and dry stalks. “They would have taken him away +from us to town, but father went with the Voyt<a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c002'><sup>[3]</sup></a> to entreat +the Bishop, and so they did not get him. But dig away, +you, dig away: the day and the field are both drawing to +a close.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They set again to work in silence. Only the crunching +sound of the hoes in the hard ground, with now and then +the sharp clink of steel upon stone, was to be heard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Less than a score of workers were there, most of them old +women and farm-labourers. At some distance were fixed +two couples of crossed poles from which, swathed in cloths, +a couple of babies were swinging as in hammocks, and +wailing now and then.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, and so the old woman has gone off a-wandering,” +Yagustynka said after some time.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The old woman? Who?” asked Anna, straightening +herself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, old Agatha.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, a-begging?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of course a-begging! No, not for the pleasure of the +thing. She has been working hard for her kinsfolk, serving +them all summer long; and now they let her go—to get +some fresh air! Next spring she will return, with baskets +full of sugar and tea, and some money, besides. Oh, they +will be fond enough of her then, and cover her up snugly in +bed, and tell her that she must not work, but just rest up. +Oh, yes! and they will call her ‘Aunt,’ till they have got the +last bit of money out of her. But when autumn comes +round again, there will again be no room for her—not even +<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>in the passageway, not even in the pigsty. Oh, those blood-sucking +kinsfolk! Those inhuman beasts!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagustynka put such passion into her outburst that her +face turned livid as she spoke.</p> + +<p class='c004'>An old farm-labourer—a wry-faced worn-out man—remarked: +“Here you see how true is the saying: ‘The wind +is always blowing in the face of the poor.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, good people, please dig away,” interrupted Hanka +hastily; she did not like the turn the conversation was taking. +But Yagustynka, who could not hold her tongue, soon +looked up and said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Those Pacheses,—they are getting on in years; the hair +is thin upon their heads.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And yet,” another woman put in, “they still remain +unmarried men.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And there are so many girls growing old here, too, or +forced to take service elsewhere!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yet, they have a score of acres and more, besides a +meadow beyond the mill.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, but will their mothers let them marry, do you +think, or let them have anything if they do?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, who would then milk the cows, or do the washing, +or tend to the farm and the pigs?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They have to keep house for their mother and for +Yagna. Else how could Yagna be the grand lady that she +is? Quite a gentlewoman, always dressing up, and washing +herself, and peering into her glass, and for ever braiding +her hair!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And looking for someone to share her bed—any able-bodied +young man will do,” added Yagustynka with a +malicious sneer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Joseph Bandech sent ‘proposers’<a id='r4'></a><a href='#f4' class='c002'><sup>[4]</sup></a> to her with a gift of +vodka, but she would not have him.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A plague on her, the pampered minx!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And the old dame, too: always in church, and praying +<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>out of her prayer-book, and going wherever there’s an +indulgence!”<a id='r5'></a><a href='#f5' class='c002'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c004'>“She’s a witch, all the same. Who was it that made +Vavrek’s cows dry up, pray? And, ah! when Yashek’s +little boy stole plums from her orchard, and she muttered +evil words against him, did he not get the <i>koltun</i><a id='r6'></a><a href='#f6' class='c002'><sup>[6]</sup></a> at once, +and shrivel up with crooked limbs?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, how can God’s blessings descend upon a place where +such creatures dwell?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“In former days,” Yagustynka observed, “when I was +still tending father’s cattle, they used to drive such people +out of our midst.... Aye, and it does them no harm, for +they are not without protectors.” Then, lowering her voice, +and casting a side-glance at Hanka then busily digging in +the foremost row, Yagustynka whispered to her neighbours: +“The first to defend her would be Hanka’s goodman; he follows +Yagna everywhere like a dog.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For God’s sake! Pray, hold your tongue. What awful +things you are telling us! Why, that’s an offence against +God, a sin!” the gossips whispered to her, as they went on +digging with bowed shoulders.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is he, then, the only one? Why, all the lads are after +her, like cats after their kind.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Indeed, she is good-looking: plump as a well-fed heifer, +with a face as white as cream, and eyes even as the flax-flower. +Strong, besides; many a man no stronger.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For what does she do but eat and sleep? No wonder she +is comely.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>A long silence ensued while they emptied their baskets +on to the heap. Afterwards the talk ran on other subjects, +till Yuzka, Boryna’s daughter, was seen coming at a run +across the cornfields, from the village, and they stopped. +She came, panting and all out of breath, shouting from a +distance:</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>“Hanka, come home: there’s something wrong with the +cow!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Mercy on us! which cow?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“White-and-Red.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka heaved a sigh of relief. “Good God! how you +frightened me! I thought it was mine.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek brought her in but now; the keeper had driven +them out of the wood. She ran too fast—she is so very +fat,—and fell just outside the byre. She neither eats nor +drinks; only rolls about and bellows. Mercy on us!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is father home yet?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, he is not. Oh, good Lord! Such a cow, too! She +gave more than a gallon at each milking. Oh, do come, +quick!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, yes, quick as thought—instantly!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She at once took her child out of the cloth in which it +hung hammock-like, and came away so alarmed at the news +that she forgot to let down the apron with which she had +tucked her dress up to the knees for work. And, as she followed +Yuzka, her white legs twinkled across the fields.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The potato-diggers, working with their hoes between their +feet, went on more slowly, having no one to hurry or to +chide them any more.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun, now quite in the West, glowing red as if heated +by its rapid course, hung like a huge crimson globe above +the high, black woods. Twilight was deepening and spreading +over the landscape; filling furrows, hiding in ditches, +gathering under thickets, and slowly pouring over the land; +deadening, blotting out and wiping away all colours, until +the tree-tops and the church-roof and steeple alone glowed +with gorgeous hues. Many labourers were already plodding +homewards.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Shouts and neighings, and bellowings and the rattling of +carts, growing ever louder and louder, filled the quiet evening +air. But presently a tinkling from the belfry announced +the Angelus; and at the bell’s sonorous vibrations, +these noises were all hushed, and only whispered prayers, +like the faint sound of falling leaves, were audible.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>And now the cattle, driven home with merry cries and +songs in a confused multitude, came along the roads stirring +up such a volume of dust that only now and then +were their mighty, thickly-horned heads seen to emerge +from it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Sheep, too, bleated here and there, and flocks of geese, +flying off the pasture lands, were lost in the Western glow, +so that only their shrill, creaking cries betrayed the fact +that they were on the wing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A pity that White-and-Red was with calf.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is a good thing that Boryna is not poor.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A pity, all the same, to lose so fine an animal.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Boryna has no wife, everything he has goes as through +a sieve.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because Hanka is no sort of housekeeper, you know.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but she is—for herself. They lodge with her father +as if they were farm-labourers; each of them is on the look-out +for what can be got out of him. As to Boryna’s +property, let the dog watch over it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka is a child, and knows nothing. What can she +do?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, Boryna might as well give up his land to Antek, +might he not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, indeed, and live on the portion they will allow +him?” Yagustynka returned hotly. “You are old, Vavrek, +but a great fool for all that. Ho, ho! Boryna is still hale: +he may marry again. If he gave all he had to his children, +he would be an ass.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hale he is, but over sixty.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Never fear, Vavrek; any girl would have him, if he +only asked her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He has buried two wives already.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May he bury a third, then, and, God help him! Never +while he lives let him give his children the least bit of +ground;—no, not so much as a foot of it. The carrion! +They would give him a fine portion, they would! Force +him to work on the farm, or starve, or go far off to beg! +Yes, turn over what you have to your children; they will +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>give you just enough, to buy a rope to hang yourself or to +tie a stone round your neck with!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, it’s getting dark; time to go home.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, it is time; the sun is going down.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>So they quickly shouldered their hoes and, taking their +baskets and dinner pails in hand, went off in single file +along the path, old Yagustynka always passionately holding +forth against her own and everybody else’s children.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A girl was going home in the same direction, but by +another path, driving a sow with its little ones and singing +in a shrill voice:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Oh, go not near the wagon,</div> + <div class='line'>Nor with its axle play,</div> + <div class='line'>Nor let a young man kiss thee,</div> + <div class='line'>Whatever he may say!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“Listen to that idiot howling as if she was being skinned +alive!”</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>A good many people had gathered by this time in +Boryna’s yard, which, surrounded on three sides +by farm buildings, was separated from the road +by an orchard on the fourth. Several women were offering +advice and eyeing with amazement the very large red-and-white +cow that lay wallowing on a heap of manure just +before the byre.</p> + +<p class='c004'>An old dog, somewhat lame and with hairless patches +along its sides, was now sniffing at her and barking, now +running to the fence and driving back into the road such +boys and girls as had climbed up and were gazing curiously +into the yard, and now approaching a sow that lay near the +hut, suckling four white little pigs and gently grunting.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka ran straight to the cow on arriving, and at once +began to stroke her face and head.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Poor, poor dear Red-and-White!” she cried, with +copious tears and many lamentations.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From time to time the women would recommend her a +new remedy for the sick animal. Now they would pour +brine down its throat, now milk into which wax from +a consecrated taper had been dropped. One advised soap +dissolved in whey, and another suggested bleeding. But the +cow did not benefit from any of these nostrums. At times +she would lift up her head, and, as though imploring for +help, low till her beautiful large eyes, with pink-tinged +whites, grew dim and misty. Then, quite exhausted with +pain, she would bow her horned head and put forth her +tongue to lick Hanka’s hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May not Ambrose be able to do something?” was one +woman’s suggestions.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, yes, he knows a good deal about sicknesses.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>“Run to him, Yuzka. He has just rung the Angelus, so +is likely to be somewhere about the church. Good God! +when Father comes home, how furious he will be! And +yet,” Hanka sobbed, “’tis no fault of ours!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She then sat down on the threshold of the cow-house and +bared her full white bosom to the babe that was wailing for +food, meanwhile watching the suffering animal with keen +apprehension and, expecting Boryna’s arrival, casting uneasy +glances past the fence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In a few minutes Yuzka returned, announcing the arrival +of Ambrose, who came almost as soon himself. He was +close to a hundred years old, one-legged, and walked with +the aid of a staff, but still as straight as an arrow. +His face, dry and wrinkled as a potato in spring, was +clean-shaven, but scarred; his hair as white as milk, with +long wisps falling on his forehead and hanging down to +his shoulders. He went straight to the cow and looked her +over very carefully.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oho!” he said, “you will have fresh meat presently, I +see.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but pray do something to make her well!” cried +Jozia. “A cow worth over three hundred <i>zloty</i><a id='r7'></a><a href='#f7' class='c002'><sup>[7]</sup></a> ... and +just now with calf, besides! Do help us! Oh, dear! Oh, +dear!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose produced a lancet, whetted it on his boot, +looked at the edge against the sky, and then cut a blood-vessel +in Red-and-White’s belly. But no spurt of blood +followed; only a few drops, black and foam-flecked, +oozed out slowly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All were standing about, their necks craned forward, +breathless with attention.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Too late!” he said mournfully. “Yes, the poor thing is +near its last gasp. It must be cattle plague or something of +the sort. You should have sent for me as soon as there +was anything the matter. Those women! Peevish things +they are, fit only to weep! When anything’s to be done, +they only fall a-bleating. A lot of ewes!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>He spat contemptuously, looked once more at the cow’s +eyes and tongue, wiped his gory hands on her sleek hide, +and prepared to go.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall not ring for her funeral; your pots will clink +instead.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Here come Father and Antek!” exclaimed Yuzka, hastening +to meet them as a rumbling sound came from the farther +end of the pond and a long cart and horses appeared, looming +dark against the red glow of dust blazing in the light +of the setting sun.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father, Father! Red-and-White is dying!” she called +out. He was just turning the pond. Antek had got down +behind; the pine they had on the cart was a long one, and +had to be held up.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Don’t waste your breath talking nonsense,” he growled in +reply, lashing the horses.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ambrose has bled it—in vain. Melted wax down her +throat—in vain, too. Salt—no use.... ’Tis the cattle-plague, +no doubt. Vitek says the forester drove them out +of the grove, and all at once Red-and-White lay down and +started to moan; and so he brought her back here.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Red-and-White, our best cow! You foul beasts! The +devil take you for the care you took of her!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He threw the reins to his son and ran forward, whip in +hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The women drew away. Vitek, who had all the time been +very calmly doing things about the house, ran off, faint with +fear, into the garden. Even Hanka stood up on the threshold, +bewildered and dismayed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Old Boryna looked long at the cow and then cried out:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, she is gone, and because of them! The filthy sluts! +Always ready to eat, but to watch—never! Such a splendid +animal! One cannot stir from the house, but that some +harm and evil must come of it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka murmured in excuse: “But I have been out +potato-digging all afternoon.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He turned on her in a rage. “You! Do you ever see +anything that goes wrong? Do you care one pin for the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>things that are mine? Such a cow as ’twould be hard to +find—aye, even at a manor farm!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He went on lamenting for some time, examined the cow, +tried to make her stand up, and looked into her mouth. She +was breathing heavily, with a rattle in her throat. Her +blood had quite ceased to flow and formed hard, black clots +like cinders.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s to be done? She must be killed: I’ll save at +least as much as that will bring us.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thus making up his mind, he went into the barn for a +scythe. After sharpening it with a few turns of a grindstone +that stood under the eaves of the cow-house, he pulled +off his coat, tucked up his shirt-sleeves, and set about his +grim task.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka and Yuzka began to weep as Red-and-White, as +though feeling death close at hand, raised her heavy head +and, moaning faintly, fell flat, with her throat cut. Her +legs jerked convulsively once or twice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The dog lapped the blood, which was already beginning +to clot.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek, who had just arrived, angrily addressed his weeping +wife:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What have you to weep over, foolish one? Father’s cow +is father’s loss, not ours!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And he set to unharnessing the horses, which Vitek took to +the stable.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is the potato crop good?” Boryna inquired as he was +washing his hands by the well.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why shouldn’t it be good? Twenty sacks or thereabouts,” +was the reply.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They must be brought in this very day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Bring them in yourself, then,” said Antek. “I am dead +tired and ready to drop. The off-horse, too, is lame in one +foreleg.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka, go and tell Kuba to stop digging. Let him put +the young mare to instead of the off-horse, and bring the +potatoes home to-day. It may rain.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>Boryna was boiling over with anger and mortification. +Every now and then he went to gaze at the slaughtered cow +and swore outrageously. Then he strode across the yard, +looked into the byre, the barn, and all the sheds, being so +confused by his loss that he did not know what he was doing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek! Vitek!” he roared at length, unfastening the +broad leather girdle round his waist. But Vitek did not +answer his call.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All the neighbours had disappeared, feeling that such +sorrow for so great a loss was likely to end in blows, and +Boryna was at no time indisposed for a fight. To-day, however, +he did nothing but curse and swear.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Going toward the hut, he cried through the open window: +“Hanka, give me something to eat!” and passed in to his +own quarters.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The hut was the usual peasants’ cabin, divided into two +parts by a very wide passageway. The back looked out +upon the yard; the four front windows, upon the orchard +and the road. Boryna and his daughter, Yuzka, occupied +the side next the garden; Antek and his family lived on the +other side; while the herdsman and the labourer slept in the +stable.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The room was now getting dark, for but little light could +filter through its tiny windows, the eaves that overshadowed +them, and the trees of the orchard beyond. Only the sheen +of the glass that covered the holy images hanging in dark +rows from the whitewashed walls, could be seen. The room, +though large, looked smaller on account of the low ceiling, +with the great beams supporting it, and the amount of furniture +which filled the whole place, leaving only a little free +space about the big penthouse fire-place that stood close to +the passage wall.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna took off his boots there, then entered a dim +alcove, and closed the door behind him. He removed a +shutter from a small pane of glass, and the sundown at once +flooded the closet with blood-red light.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was a small lumber-room, crowded with household +<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>articles. Poles were fixed across it, from which hung many +a striped cloth and <i>sukmana</i>;<a id='r8'></a><a href='#f8' class='c002'><sup>[8]</sup></a> there were piles of grey +spinning-yarn, and fleeces rolled into dingy bales, and sacks +of feathers. He took a white <i>sukmana</i> and a scarlet girdle, +and then for a long time fumbled in certain tubs full of +grain; also in a corner, underneath a heap of odds and +ends—leather and iron fumbled together. But, hearing +Hanka in the next room, he quickly replaced the shutter, +and again started groping in the tubs of corn.</p> + +<p class='c004'>His supper, an enormous pot of cabbage stewed with fat +bacon, was now smoking on a bench just beneath the window. +The odour of that mingled in the air with the smell of +scrambled eggs in a big dish close by.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Where did Vitek take the cattle this morning?” he asked, +cutting off a mighty piece from a loaf of bread as large as +the largest sieve.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To the manor copse; and the forester drove them out.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The carrion! It is they who have killed Red-and-White!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, she was so tired and overheated with running that +something inside her got inflamed.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Those beggarly dogs! We have a right to graze our +cattle there. It is down in black and white, in letters as +large as an ox: yet they always drive us away, and say we +have no right there.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They have done the same to others, too. They have +beaten up Valek’s boy, too, most sorely.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! I shall go to court, or else to the Commissioner. +She was worth three hundred <i>zloty</i>, if she was worth a <i>grosz</i>!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Surely, surely,” assented Hanka, greatly relieved to see +her father less angry with her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Tell Antek that as soon as they have brought the potatoes +in, they must see to the cow—skin her and cut her up. +I shall lend a hand when I get home from the Voyt’s. Hang +the quarters from the rafters, out of the reach of dogs and +vermin.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Having finished his meal, he got up to dress for the visit, +but felt so heavy and drowsy that he flung himself on the +bed, just as he was, for just forty winks of sleep.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka cleared the things away, going to the window every +now and then to peep at Antek, who was taking his supper +under the porch in front of the house. He sat at a civil +distance from the platter, taking spoonful after spoonful +with a hard but leisurely scrape against the sides of the +vessel. At times he would cast a glance over the pond, +whose waters gleamed with moving circles of purple and +gold, iridescent in the sunset. Amongst these, like white +clouds round a rainbow, swam a flock of geese, gabbling and +spurting streams of blood-red jewels from their beaks.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The village was seething with life and crowds of people. +On the road at either side of the pond, the dust flew and +carts rattled; and lowing cattle stood knee-deep in the pond, +drinking at leisure and lifting their ponderous heads, while +from their jaws streams of water trickled down like strings +of opals. Meanwhile, on the farther side, washerwomen +were at work, and the bats they wielded clattered loudly on +the linen they were beating.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Antek, please split the firewood for me; I cannot manage +it by myself,” said his wife timorously, for the man thought +nothing of treating her to an oath—nay, even to a blow—on +the slightest pretext.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He did not so much as reply, feigning not to have heard +her. She dared not repeat her request, but went to hack off +such splinters of firewood as she could, while he, moody and +spent with a long day’s hard work, sat looking over to the +other side of the pond, where a large cottage shone with +whitewashed walls and window-panes that reflected the sunset +glow. A low stone fence, over which some clusters of +dahlias nodded their heads, standing out vividly on the +white background of cottage wall, ran round the garden; and +in front of the house a tall figure was seen to pass from +beneath the orchard trees, disappearing in the passage before +it could be recognized.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From the porch where he sat, Antek heard his father’s +<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>snores and growled fiercely. “The Master sleeps; and <i>you</i>, +toil on, labourer, toil on!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He went out into the yard and eyed the cow again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She was father’s cow, but it is also a loss for us,” he +remarked to his wife, who had left off hacking wood and +gone to the cart which Kuba had now driven home.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The pits are not yet ready for the potatoes; we must +dump them upon the threshing-floor.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But father said you were to flay the cow and quarter it +on the threshing-floor, with Kuba to help you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There will be room enough for both cow and potatoes,” +muttered Kuba, throwing the barn door wide open.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I,” said Antek, “am no slaughter-house workman, that +I should flay carcasses!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>No more was said; the potatoes rattled noisily on the +barn-floor.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun was down, but the dark blood and dead gold of +the after-glow were still mistily reflected in the pond; and +the quiet waters just trembled, shimmering ruddily with a +drowsy murmur.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently the village was lost in shadows and plunged in +the deep stillness of an autumnal night. The huts seemed +smaller, as though sunk into the ground or melted into the +trees that hung dreamily above them, or made one with the +grey fences surrounding them. Antek and Kuba were carrying +the potatoes. Hanka and Yuzka, busy with their household +duties, were driving the geese home or feeding the +swine that came grunting for food into the passage. Then +the cows wanted milking. Vitek had just come home with +them from the pasture-lands, and had put a little hay on +the racks before them, that they might remain quiet while +being milked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka had just begun with the first cow, when Vitek asked +her in a low trembling voice: “Yuzka, is master very +angry?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, Lord! that he is! He means to give you a thrashing!” +she answered, turning her face to the light and putting +<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>out her hand, for the cow, tormented by flies, was whisking +her tail, which struck the girl.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But was it my fault if the forester drove us out? He +would have given me a beating, too, but I got away. And +she lay down and lowed and moaned, so I came back with +her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He said no more, but she heard him sniffling and weeping +quietly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek! you are crying like a calf. Don’t! Is it the first +time father has thrashed you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, indeed, but I can’t bear being thrashed; I am always +afraid.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How silly! A great husky fellow, and afraid? But I’ll +explain it all to Father.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will you really, Yuzka?” he exclaimed joyfully.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I will, Vitek; only fear no more!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If you will,—then here’s a bird for you,” he whispered, +much pleased, and took a marvellous toy out of his bosom. +“Just look how it moves, all by itself!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He placed it on the threshold and wound it up. The bird, +lifting up its long legs and shaking its head, began to walk.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh Lord! it’s a stork! and it moves as if alive!” she +cried out in wonder and, setting her milk pail aside, crouched +down and gazed on in rapture.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, how clever you are to have made it! and it moves +by itself, does it?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“By itself, Yuzka; only I wind it up with this wooden +peg. And see! it is strutting about like a gentleman after +dinner!” He turned it about. The bird, lifting up its long +legs, with comical gravity, strutted on, moving its neck back +and forth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They both started to laugh, heartily amused by these +movements; and from time to time Yuzka glanced admiringly +at the boy.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Suddenly Boryna raised his voice, calling to Yuzka from +outside the cabin.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Here I am,” she answered.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>“Come to me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I can’t; I’m milking.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well,” he said, “I am off to the Voyt,” and added, peeping +into the dark shed: “That, that there bastard, isn’t he +here?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, Vitek do you mean? He is gone with Antek,” she +replied hastily and with uneasiness, for Vitek, terrified, had +come to crouch behind her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He has run off!... A rank beast he is ... to let such +a cow be lost!” he snarled, returning to the hut to put on +his new white <i>sukmana</i>, and a high-crowned black hat. +Then, buckling on a scarlet girdle, he set off in the direction +of the mill.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So much work still to do!” he said to himself as he +walked on; “all the winter’s firewood to be brought in, some +fields not yet sown, and the cabbages still out of doors! +The potato-fields, too, must be ploughed; and so must the +oat-fields. My God! a man’s work is never done; he is like +an ox under the yoke. And that law business, besides!... +A bad one she is, truly: I slept with her indeed!... May +her tongue rot away, the vile creature!” He spat venomously, +filled his pipe, and with some difficulty kindled +a damp match by striking it on his trouser-leg.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then he jogged along slowly, still brooding over his +troubles and the death of the cow.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now he was as lonely as a signpost. There was no one +he could complain or tell things to.... He had to think +of everything, and make up his mind, and care for everything +all by himself—a dog’s life!... Never could he +speak to anyone, nor get any advice or assistance ... and +the result was, loss upon loss!</p> + +<p class='c004'>The hamlet was now getting dark. Through the wide-open +doors and windows (for the evening was warm) there +came from the glowing hearths streaks of light, and the +odour of cooked potatoes, and porridge with driblets of +fried bacon. Many were supping in the passages, or even +outside the cabins, and talking merrily to the clatter of +spoons.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>Boryna’s pace slackened; he was exhausted with the excitement +he had gone through, and the thought of the wife +he had buried that spring recurred to him and made him +gulp down a sob.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, no! if <i>she</i>—how well I recollect her to-night!—if +she had been here, Red-and-White would still be alive. Yes, +she was a housewife, indeed, a rare housewife. It’s true, +she had a sharp tongue, and never a good word for anyone: +but she was a good wife and manager, for all that.” And +then he breathed a prayer for her soul, very sore at heart +in the remembrance of times gone by.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When he used to come home, all tired and weary, she +would give him the best of everything; and time and again +would she hand him, on the sly, savoury bits of sausage +that she had secreted for him from the children. And, +somehow, they throve very well then. Calves and goslings +and suckling pigs multiplied; on fair days, there was always +plenty to take to town; always cash at hand, and money +put by for a rainy day.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now?</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek was continually pulling his own way, as was his +son-in-law, the blacksmith—always trying to get something +out of him. Yuzka?—A frail child, with bran instead of +brains in her head; and no wonder, for she was still under +ten. And Hanka? She fluttered about like a moth, was +for ever ailing, and did nothing but whine like a dog.</p> + +<p class='c004'>So everything was going to rack and ruin. Red-and-White +had to be killed that day, a pig died at harvest-time; +while the crows had carried off so many goslings that but +half of them remained. Such losses! Such disasters! All +he had was being frittered away, running out like water +through a sieve!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I won’t give in!” he almost cried aloud: “as long as +I can move these limbs of mine, not one acre shall be given +up to anyone!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Praised be Jesus Christ!” someone greeted him as he +passed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“World without end!” was his instinctive reply as he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>turned off from the road into a long-fenced lane at the end +of which, some distance back from the highway, stood the +Voyt’s cottage.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The windows shone brightly. The dogs started to bark, +as Boryna walked straight into the best room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is the Voyt at home?” he asked of a stout woman kneeling +close to a cradle and suckling a baby.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, but he will be presently. Sit down, Matthias; +there’s someone else waiting for him, besides.” And the +woman threw her chin forward in the direction of a beggar +sitting by the fire—the blind old man we have met before, +led by a dog. The chips that were burning on the hearth +threw a hard reddish light on his large shaven face, his +bald crown, and his wide-open eyes, drawn over with a +white film and motionless under grey brows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Whence has the Lord led you hither?” asked Boryna, +seating himself on the opposite side of the fire.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“From up and down the world, good man; and how were +it otherwise with me?” was the answer given in a drawling, +plaintive voice, while its owner, who listened attentively to +each sound, pulled out a snuff-box.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Pray take a pinch, good man.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Matthias complied, and such a large pinch did he take +that he sneezed three times and the water came to his eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Awfully strong stuff,” he said, and wiped the tears away +with his elbow.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Petersburg snuff, very good for the eyes. May it be so—for +yours!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come round to my cabin to-morrow, will you? I have +killed a cow.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God reward you. Boryna, I believe?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! you are good at guessing.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Knew you by your voice and speech.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, coming from up and down the world, what news +have you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! what indeed? Some news is good, some bad, and +some indifferent. The way of the world. They all complain +and lament when it comes to giving a beggar something; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>and yet they have always money enough for vodka.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You speak truly; it is just as you say.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ho, ho! I have been a wayfarer on this God’s earth +long enough to know a thing or two.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What,” the Voyt’s wife then asked of him, “what has become +of the foundling who came with you last year?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! the vile creature! he ran away, filching a pretty +good sum out of my wallet. Some good people had given +me a little money, and I was taking it to Our Lady of Czestochowa +to have mass said, when the wretch stole it and +made off.... Be quiet, Burek! It’s the Voyt, I imagine.” +And at a pull on the string that held it, the dog ceased +barking.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He was right. The Voyt came in and, standing on the +threshold, threw his whip into a corner and shouted:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Wife! Supper! I’m starved. How are you, Matthias? +And you, old man, what do you need?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have come to ask about the affair I am to appear in +to-morrow.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I can wait your pleasure, sir. Put me in the passage; +it shall be well with me; or if, because I am old, you set +me by the fire, there I shall sit. Give me to eat of your +potatoes or a morsel of bread, and I shall pray for you just +as much as if you gave me a kopek or more.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sit down. You may sup here and spend the night, too, +if you will.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And the Voyt sat down to a steaming dish of newly-mashed +potatoes, made savoury with abundant driblets of +fried bacon; a platter of sour milk standing close by.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take a seat, Matthias, and share what we have,” said the +Voyt’s wife cordially as she laid a third spoon on the table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, thanks. When I got home from the forest I ate a +generous supper.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take a spoonful at least; the evenings are getting long.”</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“‘Plenty of prayers, plenty of food,</div> + <div class='line'>Never does harm, always does good,’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c011'>the beggar put in sententiously.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>Boryna stood upon ceremony for a time, but at last the +smell of the bacon in his nostrils got the better of him. So +he sat down and began to eat, but slowly, daintily, and +with great decorum.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The blind man’s dog now began to move about uneasily +and to whine impatiently for food.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Be quiet, Burek! The farmer folk are at supper now. +You will get your share, don’t fear.” So spoke the blind +man soothingly as he was warming his hands at the fire and +inhaling the savoury odour.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When the first pangs of hunger had been appeased, the +Voyt, turning to Matthias, said: “Eva has, it appears, +lodged a complaint against you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She! Oh, well, I declare! Not paid her, indeed? As +there is a God, I have—aye, and beyond what she deserved. +Yes, and when she had that baby I willingly sent the priest +a sack of oats for her at the christening!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But she says it was you who——”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but that’s preposterous! What, is she mad? Is she +crazy?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oho! Old as you are, you are still an able craftsman!” +And the Voyt and his wife burst out laughing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To be old,” put in the blind man, “is to know; to know +is to be able.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But she lies like a gipsy! I never touched her, the +wench! She was homeless; an outcast who begged and +prayed us to take her in—just for the food and a corner to +sleep in, because winter was near. I was loath to do it, +but my wife that’s dead thought we had better. She could +do things in the house. Why should we hire a servant +when one was ready at hand? I did not like this—another +mouth to feed, and in winter, too, when there’s always less +to be done. But my wife said: ‘Don’t worry; she knows +how to weave cloth and canvas. I’ll see to it that she is +not idle, and there will always be some work or other for +her.’ Well, she stayed on with us and got strong; and presently +she was with child. But the question is, who was the +man?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>“You, according to her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll kill her for saying so! The miserable liar!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Anyway, you will have to appear in court.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall. God reward you for telling me this. I thought +it was about her wages: but I have witnesses to prove that +I have paid her. A plague on her! A scold, and a beggar +into the bargain!—Dear me! one trouble after another! I +shall never be able to stand all this. And the cow I have +had to kill! And the field-work not yet done! And here +I am, all alone, with no one in the world to lend a hand!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Who for a wife that’s gone must weep is like a wolf-encompassed +sheep,’” the old man observed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I heard about the cow; they told me in the village.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As to that, I have a claim against the manor. The +forester, I understand, drove the cows away. She was the +best of all I have—worth three hundred <i>zloty</i>—was with +calf—ran so fast and got so blown that I had to kill her. +No, I shall not let that pass: I’ll bring suit.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt, however, who was friendly to the manor, strove +to calm Boryna: anger was always a bad counsellor, and +he should beware of doing anything rash. Then, to change +the subject, he said with a wink at his wife:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Man, you ought to marry, so as to get someone who +would take care of the house.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I say, is this a joke? Why, last Assumption Day I +rounded my fifty-eighth year. What are you dreaming of? +And she, too, scarcely cold in her grave yet!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You just take a wife, one fit for your age, and all will +be well with you again, Matthias,” said the Voyt’s wife, +preparing to clear the table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘For, sure, a good and kindly wife is the crown of her +husband’s life,’” added the blind man, groping for the dish +which the woman had set before him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna sat wondering why the thought had not occurred +to him before. Certainly some woman or other was to be +found, and any one would be better than none.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Some,” continued the old man as he ate, “are silly and +speechless, some are quarrelsome, some pull the lads’ hair, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>and others are always dancing or running after music in +taverns; but, anyhow, a man is better off with one than +without.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But what would people think of it?” objected Boryna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Think? Will they give you back your cow or help you +in anything, whatever they think?” the Voyt’s wife retorted +with much heat.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Or warm your bed for you?” said the Voyt with a laugh. +“There are so many lasses here that, when a man goes about +the huts, he is as hot as coal in a fire.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! the reprobate! look at him! Whom is he hankering +after now?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sophie, Gregory’s daughter, might do; a slim handsome +girl and a good dowry, too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What does Matthias, the richest farmer here, want with +a dowry?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Of goods and lands and such, who ever has too much?’” +queried the blind man.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No,” the Voyt decided, “Gregory’s girl is not for him—too +young, too immature.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then Andrew’s daughter, Catharine,” was the next proposal +made by the Voyt’s wife.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Already taken. Roch’s son, Adam, sent proposers to her +yesterday.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, there is Veronka, Stach’s daughter.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A babbler, a gadabout, and with one hip deformed.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But what about Thomas’s widow? She would do very +well, I fancy.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Three children, four acres, two heads of cattle, and an old +sheepskin that poor Tom left her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Perhaps Ulisia, Adalbert’s daughter, who lives by the +church?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She might do for a single young man. The boy she has +is now big enough to tend cattle. But Matthias has his own +cowherd, and needs none.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There are others yet to be married; only I seek someone +suitable.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>“But, wife, you have overlooked one who would be just +the girl for him.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who is that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, Yagna, daughter of Dominik.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To be sure; she had escaped my memory.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A bouncing wench and tall; no fence but would break +under her weight.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna!” repeated Boryna, who had been silently listening +to this roll-call; “but they say she runs after men.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who has seen her? who knows? Gossips will gossip for +gossiping’s sake and for envy,” cried the Voyt’s wife, hot in +her defence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, I did not say she was that way, but it’s common +talk. Well, now, I must be off.” He adjusted his girdle, +put a live coal to his pipe, and pulled at it twice or three +times.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And for what hour is the summons?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For nine o’clock; so it stands in black and white in +the District Court. You will have to rise early, if you are +going there on foot.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall take the filly and drive slowly. God be with +you, and thanks for your good cheer and neighbourly +advice.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May God go with you, too. And think over what we +have been telling you. Say but the word, and I will go to +the old dame with vodka for you; and we shall have a wedding +before Yule-tide is out.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna answered not a word, but gave them a parting +glance that might mean anything.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When old with young to wedlock fly, the devil is glad, +for he profits thereby,” was the blind beggar’s reflection as +he finished the mashed potatoes. Boryna walked homeward +with slow steps, seriously meditating on the advice given +him. At the Voyt’s he had carefully kept from letting it +be known by any sign whatever that the idea was extremely +to his liking. How could he? He was not a young whippersnapper, +who would at the bare mention of marriage be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>ready to dance and shout for joy, but a grave, elderly +farmer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Night had already enshrouded the earth. The stars glistened +in the sky’s sombre depths like silver dewdrops, and +all was still, save for an occasional bark of a dog or two. +Faintly and far between, a few lights twinkled athwart the +orchard trees, and now and then a breath of damp air blew +up from the meadows, making the boughs wave slightly and +their leaves whisper soft sounds.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna was making for home by another way—direct and +leading down over the bridge, under which the waters of +the pond, rolling towards the mill, with a hollow bubbling +sound, poured into the stream. He then crossed to the other +side, skirting the pond, where the waters shone darkly and +the trees along its shores cast gloomy shadows over its +surface, framing it in ebony; though near the centre, where +the shadows were lighter, the twinkling stars were reflected +as in a mirror of steel.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Matthias himself could not have said why he did not now +go straight home, instead of choosing a roundabout way. +Did he want to pass in front of Yagna’s house? Possibly +he meant only to collect his thoughts and revolve matters +within his head.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Really, it would not be a bad thing. And what they +say of her is all very true. Yes, she is a strapping girl!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>A shiver ran through him. It was damp and cold near +and about the pond and he came straight from the Voyt’s +cosy fireside.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Without a woman at home, I must either be ruined or +make over the farm to my children,” he thought, and then: +“And she’s a lusty wench, and as pretty as a picture. My +best cow gone to-day! and who knows what else will go +to-morrow? Perhaps I ought to look out for a second +wife; my first one has left things to wear a plenty. But +Dominik’s old widow ... she is a wicked creature!—Three +of them, and fifteen acres: about five for Yagna, besides +her share of the cabin and the livestock. Five acres +of fields—the very ones beyond my own potato-patch. Together +<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>with mine, they will make close to thirty-five acres. +A nice bit of land!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He rubbed his hands and set his girdle straight. “The +miller would be the only man richer than I. Next year, I +would manure and till the whole of my lands for wheat. +I would have to purchase another horse. And a cow too, in +place of poor Red-and-White.—Oh, but then she would +bring a cow of her own....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>So he went on musing, calculating, and dreaming farmers’ +dreams, till the weight of his thoughts became, he felt, too +big for his mind. For he was marshalling every detail, like +the intelligent peasant that he was, and considering whether +he had not possibly overlooked anything of importance.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They would raise a hue over it, the rascals!” he said to +himself, thinking of his children. But at the thought there +rushed over him a wave of indomitable self-confidence, +which immediately filled his soul and confirmed him in his +purpose, wavering and undecided as he had been hitherto.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The land is my own. Let anyone else dare claim my +property! If they don’t like it, they may....” Here he +broke off, for he was then standing in front of the cabin +where Yagna dwelt.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The lamps were not yet out, and a long streak of brightness +from the open window, passing through the dahlia +bushes and the hedge, illumined the road. Boryna, standing +in the shadow, glanced into the room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A big fire was evidently burning on the hearth, for the +crackling of pinewood could be heard; and the great room, +though dusky in the corners, was elsewhere filled with a reddish +light. The old dame, crouching close to the fire-place, +was reading something aloud; and Yagna, dressed only in +her smock, her face turned to the window and her sleeves +tucked up to the shoulders, was engaged in plucking a live +goose.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A comely wench!” he thought.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She would raise her head now and then, listen to the reading, +and heave a deep sigh. Then she would again set to +plucking the goose, but so roughly that the bird would +<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>gabble audibly with pain, and, escaping from her hands, +flap about the room till the feathers were flying everywhere. +But she would soon quiet it and hold it fast between her +knees, the bird uttering only a few faint cries, to which +other cries responded from the passage and the yard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A handsome girl, she,” he mused and walked away at a +rapid pace, for the blood had gone to his head. Raising his +hand to his brow, he drew tightened his girdle as he walked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He was already within his own gates, and had passed the +fence, when he looked round at Yagna’s dwelling, which +stood opposite on the other side of the water. Someone was +just then going out, for a quick flash from the opening door +lit up the pond. Heavy footsteps were heard tramping +along, and the splash of a bucket of water was audible; +then at last, amid the darkness and the mists which had come +up from the meadows, a voice sang to a slow tune:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Betwixt us rolls the flood, O grief!</div> + <div class='line'>How can I send a kiss from here?</div> + <div class='line'>I’ll float it down upon a leaf</div> + <div class='line'>And waft my love to thee, my dear.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>He listened long, but the voice was heard no more; and +after a while all the lights were put out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The moon, now in her full, had risen above the forest-trees, +silvering their tops, throwing its radiance through +their boughs and upon the pond, and peeping down into the +cottage windows. The dogs no longer barked. An unfathomable +stillness had settled over the village and over +all nature.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna made the round of the yard, took a look at the +horses that snorted as they munched their provender, and +put his head into the cow-byre, the doors of which stood +open because of the heat. The cows were lying and chewing +the cud with the low murmurs peculiar to cattle.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He closed the granary doors and, taking off his hat, entered +his cabin and said his evening prayers half aloud. All +were sleeping. He undressed quietly and went at once to +bed.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>He could not sleep, however. The coverlet was so hot +that he drew it from over his feet. His head, too, was +teeming with many a troublesome and worrisome thought. +Besides, he was not at his best physically.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sour milk,” he muttered, “as I always say, is not good +to take of an evening.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And then he thought about his children and pondered +over what had been said of Yagna, till all this became muddled +and confused in his brain. He knew not what to do, +and was on the point (as once had been his wont) of calling +for advice to the sleeper in the other bed:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Mary! Am I to marry or not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But he remembered in time that his Mary had been lying +in the churchyard ever since the spring. Yuzka was +there, asleep and breathing heavily. And he was a poor +desolate man, with no one on earth to advise him. So he +gave a deep sigh, crossed himself, and said a few Ave Marias +for the soul of his departed and for the souls of all the +faithful in purgatory.</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>When daybreak began to shed its light on the +cabin-roofs, and dispel the night, and make the +stars to fade, things were already moving about +Boryna’s hut.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba had left the stable. There was hoarfrost on the +ground, and it was yet grey dawn; but the East flaunted a +tinge of burning red, and the frosty tree-tops likewise. He +stretched himself with satisfaction, yawned more than once, +and went to the byre to call Vitek; for it was time to rise. +But the lad only lifted his drowsy head, and whispering: +“Presently, Kuba, presently,” laid it down again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, sleep a little more, poor fellow! sleep yet a little +more!” Kuba covered him with a sheepskin coat, and +limped away; for he had once received a bullet in the knee, +which lamed him for life. He washed at the well, ran his +fingers through his scanty hair, that had got matted during +the night, and, kneeling down on the stable threshold, proceeded +to say his prayers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The master was still in bed, when the cabin-windows took +a purple tint in the ruddy glow of morning. Kuba’s rosary +glided through his fingers; he prayed for a long time, his +eyes wandering nevertheless over the yard, the windows, the +orchard with the hoarfrost still not melted on the trunks, +and the apple-trees, laden with fruit as large as his fist. +Then he threw something at the white head of Lapa, the +dog which slept in the kennel close by; but Lapa only +growled, curled up, and slept on.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, you rascal! would ye sleep till sunrise?” he cried, +and threw missile after missile, till the dog came out, with +a stretch and a yawn and a wag of its tail, and, approaching +<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>him, proceeded to scratch itself and cleanse its shaggy coat +with its teeth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And unto Thee, and also unto all Thy Saints, do I, O +Lord, offer up this my prayer. Amen.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He beat his breast many times, rose from his knees, and +called out to Lapa:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O you dainty dog you, hunting for fleas like a lass going +to a wedding!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Being an industrious fellow, he now set to work, taking +the cart out of the shed and greasing the wheels, giving +the horses a drink, and filling the racks with hay till they +snorted with pleasure and pawed the stable floor. Then +he brought from the granary some refuse of corn plentifully +seasoned with good oats, which he took to the mare’s manger: +for she had been given a stall apart.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Eat, old girl, eat away; you are to have a foal, and you +need strength. Eat away!” He stroked her over the nose; +and the mare laid her head on his shoulder, and playfully +pulled at his shock of hair with her lips.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Till noon, we shall be bringing in potatoes, and then we +shall go to get litter in the evening. Never fear; a cart of +litter is no great weight; don’t worry.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But you! for you there’s a good flogging in store, you +lazy brute!” he said to the gelding that stood close by and +was pushing its head forward between the boards that separated +it from the mare’s manger.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You hireling, you Jew! Willing enough to devour good +oats, you are; but to move one step, save for the whip—not +you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He passed it by, and looked into the manger that stood +next to the wall, from which the filly’s head—chestnut-coloured, +with a white arrow on the forehead,—had for some +time been watching him; and she uttered a gentle neigh.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Easy, little one, easy! And eat your fill; you will take +master to town....” But her flank was soiled, and he +wiped it clean with a wisp of hay. Such a full-grown filly, +ready for coupling ... and yet so dirty! Always wallowing +in the mire like a sow!</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>So he went on, talking continually, and passed round to +the sties, to let out the pigs that were squealing for food. +Lapa followed him, looking wistfully into his face.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Want something, eh? Here you are then—a nice bit +of bread for you!” He took a piece of bread from his +bosom and tossed it into the air. Lapa caught it, and ran +away to his kennel, for the pigs would have taken it from +him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ha! those swine, they are like some men: all for grabbing +what’s not theirs.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the barn he took a long look at the quartered cow that +hung from the beams.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A beast without understanding. Gone in her turn. She +will be in the pots by to-morrow. Poor thing! you end by +making a Sunday dinner for us.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>With a sigh of longing for the feast in store, he went to +rouse Vitek. “’Twill be sunrise directly. Come, drive the +cows to grass.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek had no mind; he wrapped his sheepskin round him +and grunted; but in the end he got up, and shambled +drowsily about the yard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The master had overslept himself; for the sun was up, +making the hoarfrost a dust of rubies, and each pane +and pool a mirror of fire, and no one had as yet appeared +from the cabin.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek sat on the cow-byre threshold, scratching himself +and yawning audibly. The sparrows had come down from +the roofs to the well, and were now bathing in the troughs. +He took a ladder, and went to look at the swallows’ nests +under the eaves; for it was very still there, and he feared +they might have died of cold. Several swallows lay there, +benumbed. Taking them out very gently, he placed them +within his shirt-bosom.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“See, Kuba, see! they are dead!” And he showed him +the bodies, stiff and stark. Kuba took them one by one, +laid them to his ear, breathed on their eyes, and gave his +opinion.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They are only numb with last night’s cold. Silly things, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>not to have left for some warm country yet! Ah, well!” +And he went about his work again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek seated himself in front of the cabin, where the +sunbeams poured down upon the whitewashed walls, and flies +were already crawling. He took out such swallows as the +heat of his body had revived a little; he breathed on them, +opened their bills, gave them to drink from his own warm +lips, until at length they were restored, opened their eyes, +and fluttered to get free. Then, swiftly catching a fly on +the wall, he would feed it to a bird and let it go.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Away to your mother, fly away!” he said, as the young +swallows sat on the rafters of the byre, preening themselves +and twittering their thanks, as it were.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Lapa, sitting on his hind quarters, looked on with keen +interest, whining now and then, running a few paces after +each bird to catch it as it fluttered off, and then returning +to watch proceedings.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You might as well try to catch the wind,” said Vitek, so +absorbed in reviving the swallows, that he took no note of +Boryna coming round the hut, until the latter stood in front +of him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ha! you filthy knave! Playing with birds, are you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The lad jumped up to run for it; but the farmer caught +him fast by the coat-collar, while with his other hand he +undid the broad thong of tough leather which formed his +girdle.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but don’t beat me, don’t beat me, pray!” was all +the poor fellow could utter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What sort of a cowherd are you, hey?—That’s how you +tend cattle, hey?—Lost my best cow for me, hey?—You +foundling, you!—You Warsaw mooncalf!” And he laid on +furiously, wherever he could get a blow home; and the thong +whistled in the air, and the lad writhed like an eel and +roared for mercy.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Don’t! O Lord! He’s killing me! Master! O Jesus, +mercy!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka peered out to see what the matter was; Kuba +spat with disgust and withdrew into the stable.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>Boryna continued flogging him with might and main, scoring +his loss upon the lad’s flesh with a vengeance, while +Vitek shrieked and yelled at the top of his voice. At last +the poor wretch managed to wriggle out of his master’s +clutch, and holding his posteriors with both hands, ran to +the fence, roaring as he ran: “He has killed me! My +God! he has killed me!” while the swallows that were +still in his bosom, fell out and were scattered along the +road.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna, still breathing threats against him, returned to +the cottage and looked into Antek’s quarters.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What!” he cried out on seeing him. “Still abed, and +the sun up so long?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I had to rest. Was tired to death yesterday.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am going to the law court. You will bring home the +potatoes; and when that work is done, send our people to +get litter. You might yourself drive in laths to make the +hut a winter coating.”<a id='r9'></a><a href='#f9' class='c002'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do that yourself; there is no wind on our side.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As you please. I will do my side; and you, Mr. Sluggard, +shall freeze.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He slammed the door, and entered his own quarters. The +fire was lit and Yuzka was going to milk the cows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Give me breakfast instantly: I must be off.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I can’t be in two places, nor do two things at once.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And she went out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not one quiet minute! I am forced to curse and fall +foul of everybody,” he said to himself, and proceeded to +dress in a very vile humour. What everlasting rows with his +son, so that at every word each was ready to fly at the +other—or worse—to say something that stabbed you like a +knife! His ill humour, as he pondered, increased so, that +he could not help cursing under his breath, and flinging his +boots here and there about the floor.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>“They ought to obey me, and they don’t. For what +reason?” he asked himself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because, no doubt, a cudgel, and a good one, is needed +to deal with them. I ought long since to have used one. +But I did not care to raise a scandal in the village, and +could not make up my mind to do that. For I am not a +beggarly ploughman; thirty acres are mine. Nor am I of a +mean family; Boryna is a well-known name.—But kindness +is thrown away upon them!” And then he remembered +his son-in-law, the blacksmith, who was setting everyone +against him, and continually pressing for a gift of six acres +of cornland and one of forest, “willing,” he said, “to wait +for the rest.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That is, till I am dead! Oh, yes,” he thought bitterly, +“you will have to wait, fellow! While I live, you’ll not +have so much as a smell at my land! You’re too clever by +half!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>When Yuzka came in from milking, the potatoes were on +the boil, and breakfast was soon ready.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka, you will sell the meat yourself! To-morrow is +Sunday, and people know that we have it, so they will be +coming. But no credit, mind! Keep the hind quarters for +our own eating. You will call in Ambrose to salt and +pickle them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But the blacksmith too can do that.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He’ll take his share—the wolf’s share of the sheep!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But Magda will be hurt. ’Tis our cow; is she to have +nothing?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then cut off a piece and send it to Magda: but don’t call +in the blacksmith.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father dear, that’s kind of you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All right, little one. Take good care of things here, and +I’ll bring you a roll or something from town.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He made a pretty good meal, girt himself up, smoothed +down his scanty dishevelled hair, took his whip, and looked +round the room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is there anything I have forgotten?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He would have looked into the alcove too, but Yuzka’s +<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>eye was upon him: so he merely crossed himself, and went +out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Sitting in the cart, with the reins in his hand, he gave one +more order to Yuzka, who stood in the porch.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When they have done digging the potatoes, send them +off to rake up the litter: you’ll find the permit stuck behind +the picture.... And tell them to cut down some +young fir or hornbeam: it will come in handy.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The cart had got as far as the fence, when Vitek showed +himself among the apple-trees.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I had forgotten.... Vitek! Prrru, prrru! Vitek, I +say! you will take the kine to the meadow.... And tend +them well, or you’ll get such a flogging as you won’t forget.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, you may kiss—” the lad cried audaciously, and +vanished on the other side of the barn.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“None of your impudence! If I get down, you’ll see!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He turned to the right into the road by the church. The +sun was by now above the cottages, with ever stronger and +stronger rays. From the thatches mists rose up, and waterdrops +dripped down; but in the shadows of the hedges and +ditches, the frost lay white. On the pond, the thin film of +morning haze had grown thinner; the waters bubbled and +shone in the sunlight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the village the round of daily toil was commencing. +Folks were livelier and more spirited than usual in this +bright cool morning air: some going forth in troops to +dig in the fields, carrying hoes and mattocks, and baskets +with provisions; some setting out to plough the stubbled +fields; some with harrows in carts, and bags full of seed-corn; +whilst others wended their way to the wood for litter, +and bore rakes on their shoulders. And on either side of +the pond the noise increased, when presently the roads became +crowded with cattle driven to grass; dogs barked, +men shouted, and a heavy dust which the night’s dew had +but partly laid, rose in the highway.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna carefully threaded his way among the cattle, from +time to time cracking his whip at some lamb or calf that +would blunder across the filly’s path; and at last he got clear +<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>of them all, and approached the church, which was screened +by a great rampart of limes and plane-trees, with dull yellow +foliage. Thence he passed on to a broader road, planted +on either side with giant poplars.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The bell had been rung to announce that mass was beginning, +and the muffled notes of the organ came from +within; he doffed his hat and breathed a devout prayer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The way was solitary, and strewn with fallen leaves, +which covered, as with a carpet of dead gold, all its deep +holes and ruts, and the gnarled roots about its surface: a +carpet striped by the falling shadows of the poplars, as the +sun shone across the way.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Gee-up! my little one, gee-up!” He cracked his whip, +for the road sloped upwards, though slightly, towards the +forest, black in the distance.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The silence made Boryna drowsy; he gazed through the +colonnade of poplars upon the fields bathed in the rosy +radiance, and tried to think of Eva’s accusation and of +Red-and-White’s death; but he could not help feeling slumber +coming on. Birds were chirruping in the boughs; +through the tree-tops murmured the wind, here and there +bringing down a leaflet, like a golden butterfly, that settled +with a whirl on the road, or on some dusty clump of thistles, +whose fiery eyes opened bravely to the sun. And the poplars +talked one with another, and murmured softly with +swaying boughs, and then were still.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was only when he had reached the forest, and the horse +stopped, that he woke up completely.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The corn is coming up nicely here,” he mused, gazing +sunwards at the grey fields, with their rust-coloured haze of +sprouting rye.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A good bit of land, and next to mine—just as if it had +been put there on purpose!—This rye, I think, was not sown +long ago.” He cast a longing glance at the recently harrowed +lands, and then, uttering a sigh, entered the forest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here, however, a cold bleak wind, driving in his face, +quite dispelled his reverie.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The forest was very old and very great. It stood, compact +<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>and thick, in the majesty of age and strength combined. +Nearly all the trees were pines; but not unfrequently an ancient +spreading oak would appear, or some birches, in their +smocks of white bark, let their tangled yellow foliage float +in the air. The lower growths—the hazel-nut, the dwarf +hornbeam, and the trembling aspen—were crowded around +the mighty red pine-trunks, so closely and with branches so +intertwined, that the sunbeams could but seldom touch the +ground, where they seemed to be crawling, like bright-hued +insects, over the mosses and reddish faded ferns.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All this is mine. Four acres,” he reflected, devouring the +wood with his eyes, and gloating over the best bits of timber.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! the Lord will not let us be wronged! Nor will we +let people wrong us, either! The manor folk think what +we have is too much: we think it too little.—Let me see: +my four, and Yagna’s one; four and one’s.... Gee-up! +foolish beast! Afraid of magpies?” He whipped her up +smartly; for, upon the dry Tree, where the crucified Christ +was hanging, magpies were quarrelling so violently that the +filly had pricked up her ears and stopped short.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Magpies’ quarrelling, rain will surely bring,’” he muttered, +and with a few strokes of the whip mended the filly’s +pace to a trot.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was now well past eight, for the people in the fields +were sitting down to breakfast, when he came to Timow: +a small town whose empty narrow streets were lined with +dilapidated houses, like rows of old saleswomen—lining +gutters full of rubbish, and dirty Jewish children, and pigs.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He had scarcely entered, when crowds of Jews and Jewesses +rushed round him, eager to look into his cart and +fumble among the straw it was strewn with,—even under +the seat—to find anything he might have to sell.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Off, ye scurvy louts!” he growled, turning into the +market-place, where, in the shadow of a few ancient decayed +chestnut-trees slowly dying in the centre of the square, hard +on a score of wagons were drawn up, their horses +unharnessed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He drove his own cart in there among them, brushed off +<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>the straw from his coat, and went straight to Mordko the +barber’s, to get a shave. Presently he issued thence, clean-shaven, +and with only one cut on his chin, plastered with +a bit of paper, through which the blood oozed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The court was not yet open; but in front of the building +that stood right in the market-place, opposite a very +large church, a good many people had already assembled, +and were sitting upon the time-worn steps, or lounging outside +the windows. Women squatted along the white walls, +chatting together, with the red aprons they had worn on +their heads as they came, now fallen on to their shoulders.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna perceived Eva holding her boy by the hand, and +surrounded by her witnesses. A storm of anger surged +within him. He spat contemptuously, and withdrew into +the corridor that ran the whole length of the officials’ private +lodgings. The judgment hall was to the left; the secretary +occupied the right side.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Just then the manservant Yacek had passed the threshold +of the lodgings with a samovar, and was blowing it so hard +that it smoked like a factory chimney. From time to time +a shrill angry voice was raised from the extremity of the +smoke-darkened corridor.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yacek! the young ladies’ shoes!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Presently, presently.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The samovar was now hissing, and spouting flames, and +burning like a volcano.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yacek! water for master to wash!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, yes, directly, directly!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Perspiring, distracted, the man ran to and fro about the +corridor till it rang again, and returned to blow, and went +off anew; for his mistress now screamed:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yacek, you rascal, where are my stockings?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Confound this devil of a samovar!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The scene continued for some time yet; but at last the +door of the court opened, and in the people rushed, filling +the large whitewashed hall.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yacek was there again, now in his capacity as usher: +barefooted, but in a dark-blue jacket and trousers of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>same hue, and brass buttons. His red face perspiring freely, +he wiped it with his sleeve as he slipped in behind the black +grating by which the hall was divided into two parts. +Tossing his head like a horse attacked by a gadfly (for his +sandy hair fell over his eyes and into them), he sat down +for a moment’s rest near a huge stove of green delf tiles, +after peering cautiously into the adjoining room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>So many people had come in that the place was chock-full. +They pressed against the grating till it shook, and +after a time began to talk, the murmur of voices soon filling +the whole room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Under the windows outside, Jews were vociferating; +within, women clamorously expounded their wrongs, and +still more clamorously wept over them; but what those +wrongs were, no one could make out. Everybody was +cheek by jowl, like a field of red poppies or of rye, waving +to and fro in the wind, and rustling and whispering; all +clustered together.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was then that Eva caught sight of Boryna, upright +against the grating, and heaped insults upon him, till she +cut him to the quick and he answered hotly:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Silence, you bitch, or I’ll give you such a drubbing that +your own mother won’t know you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Eva, in a fury, clawed at him, and tried to reach him +through the press; but her kerchief fell off, and her child +fell a-screaming. What might have happened, none can +say: for just then Yacek started up, opened an inner door, +and shouted:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hold your peace, yokels! The court is entering.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was indeed: the stalwart squire of Raciborowice, followed +by two assistant magistrates, and the secretary. The +latter, sitting down at a side-table, set some papers in order, +and eyed the magistrates, as they put their gold chains +round their necks, and took their places at a great table, +covered with crimson cloth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At once there fell such a silence that the men chattering +outside the windows could be plainly heard; and the session +began.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>The first complaint was brought by a constable against +a petty trader, on account of some nuisance in his yard.—Condemned +in default.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then the case of a boy flogged for having put horses to +graze in clover.—A compromise: five roubles for the +mother; a new jacket and trousers for the boy.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A complaint of encroachment in ploughing.—No evidence: +set aside.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A case of theft of timber in a forest, the judge’s property: +complainant, the administrator; defendants, the peasants of +Rokiciny.—Fined, with alternative of a fortnight’s imprisonment. +They gave notice of appeal, and made such a +noise about the injustice of the sentence, they having the +common right to cut firewood in the forest, that the head +magistrate made a sign to Yacek, who thundered:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Silence! silence in the court! This is not a tavern!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And thus case after case, like furrow following furrow, +was dispatched, evenly and quietly enough in general, with +a few lamentations and sobs, or even curses at times; but +these were promptly suppressed by Yacek.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Some of the people had withdrawn; but so many more +came instead, that they all stood like cornstalks in a sheaf. +No one could move, and it grew stiflingly hot, until the +magistrate ordered the windows to be opened.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now came the case of Bartek Koziol, of Lipka, accused +of stealing a sow from Martianna Paches, daughter +of Anthony. Witnesses, the aforesaid Martianna, her son +Simon, Barbara Pyesek, etc.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are the witnesses present?” asked one of the assistant +magistrates.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We are here,” came the reply in chorus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna had hitherto stood patiently apart, close to the +grating; but he now approached Paches to greet her; for +she was no other than Dominik’s widow, Yagna’s mother.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let the defendant come up to the grating.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>A low-statured peasant pushed forwards.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you Bartek Koziol?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The peasant, seemingly bewildered, scratched his thick +<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>hair, of roundhead cut; a silly grin twitched his dry clean-shaven +face, and his small red-fringed eyes kept leaping like +squirrels from one judge to the other.</p> + +<p class='c004'>As he answered nothing, the judge repeated the question.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, aye, that he is; he is Bartek Koziol, an’t please +the most honourable court!” cried an unwieldy woman, +forcing her way inside the grating.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What do you want?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“An’t please you, I am the wife of this poor thing, Bartek +Koziol”; and extending her hands, palms downwards to +the floor, she bowed till her frilled cap touched the magistrates’ +table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you a witness?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A witness, did you say? No, but please....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Usher, outside the grating with her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Get out, woman; this is not your place.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He seized her by the shoulders and forced her back.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“An’t please this most honourable court,” she cried, “my +husband is hard of hearing!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Out, before I treat you roughly!” Yacek roared, pushing +her against the grating till she groaned with pain.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go peaceably; we shall speak loud enough for your +Koziol to hear.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The examination began.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What is your name?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My name? Surely you know it, since you have called +me. Is it my nickname you want?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Dolt! give your name,” said the inexorable magistrate.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Bartek Koziol, most honourable court,” his wife replied +for him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How old?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How am I to remember? Mother, what age am I?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fifty-two next spring, I think.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A farmer?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, yes: three acres of sandy land and one head of +cattle; a fine farmer I am!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ever sentenced?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sentenced?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>“Were you ever put in prison?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is it convicted you mean?—Mother, was I ever in +prison?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, Bartek, you were—through those rotten manor +folks, on account of a dead lamb.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, so I was.—I found a dead lamb in a pasture-meadow. +Well, was it to be eaten by the dogs? So I took +it; and they lodged a complaint against me, and swore +I had stolen the beast, and the court passed sentence. They +put me in prison, and there I had to lie.—But it was unjust—unjust!” +he said in a low voice, and casting a side-glance +at his wife.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are accused of stealing a sow, the property of +Martianna Paches: of taking it out of the field, driving it +to your hut, and killing and eating it. What defence have +you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I never ate it. If I did, may God forsake me at my +dying hour! I eat it?—Well, I declare!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What defence have you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh ... defence?—Had I aught to say, Mother?—Ah, I +remember now.—Yes: not guilty. I did not eat the sow, +and this same Martianna Dominik’s widow is even as a +barking dog!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, what liars some men are!” the Dominik woman +sighed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Explain how Paches’ sow got into your hut.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Into my hut—Paches’ sow?—Mother, what did the honourable +squire say?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, Bartek, he asked you about the pig that followed +you to our hut.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, I know ... I know now. I pray the honourable +court to excuse me and listen to what I have said already +and repeat now.—It was a pig and not a sow; a white pig, +with a black patch about the tail ... or somewhat lower +down.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, but how did it get into your hut?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Into my hut? I will tell you all exactly as it took place, +and show the right worshipful court and the people here +<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>assembled that I am innocent, and that the woman Dominik +is a lying gipsy, a cursed and pampered shrew.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A lying.... May the Most Holy Mother grant you be +struck dead unshriven!” the woman ejaculated, with a deep +sigh, and a glance at an image of the Blessed Virgin that +hung in a corner. Then she clenched her bony fist, shook +it at him, and hissed:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O you swine-stealer! you villain, you!” and she opened +her talons as though about to claw him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here Bartek’s wife interfered, screaming:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Would you then? would you hurt him, you jade, you +witch, you tyrant of your sons?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Be quiet,” ordered the judge.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hold your tongues when the judge is speaking, or I’ll +turn you both out of the place!” Yacek chimed in, holding +up his trousers; for the braces had given way.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Silence was now restored, and the two old women, who +had all but flown at each other’s throats, now stood mute, +though looking daggers and breathing hate.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Speak now, Bartek, and tell us the whole truth.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, the truth, the truth itself, as clear as crystal. As +if I were at confession.—It was in this wise....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Look well into your head,” his wife Magda put in, “lest +you should forget anything.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I will do so, Magda.—It was in this wise. I was walking +along (it was in spring, and I was close to Boryna’s +clover-field, just beyond the Wolf-Hole).... So I walked +along, saying my prayers, for night was coming on.—Now, +on my way, I heard ... was it a voice, or not? I wondered. +Did it grunt, or not?... Behind me I looked, but +saw nothing: all was still. Was it the devil after me?... +I went on my way, shuddering with fear, and said a Hail +Mary.... Again—a grunt! So I said to myself it was +only a sow, or it might be a pig.... But I walked a few +steps aside into the clover; and what did I see? Something +following me. I stopped, it stopped. A long white thing, +low on its legs; its eyes blazed like a wildcat’s or a devil’s.... +I crossed myself; and having gooseflesh, mended my +<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>pace. For I knew not what thing it could be, prowling thus +by night. Also, as all men know, the Wolf’s Hole is a +haunted place.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, that’s a truth,” his wife observed; “last year Sikora +was passing there at night, and something took him by +the throat, threw him down, and beat him so, that he kept +his bed for a fortnight.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hold your peace, Madga.—So on, on, on I went, with +the thing still running after me—and grunting! Just then +the moon shone out clear, and I saw.—Lo, it was a pig, and +no devil at all!... I was angered; for what did the foolish +thing mean by frightening me thus? So, throwing a stick +at it, I make for my home, along the path between Michael’s +beetroots and Boryna’s wheat, and then between Thomas’ +sown corn and Yashek’s oats (him they took to the army +last year, and whose wife had a baby yesterday).... And +the pig still ran after me as a dog would run, and then going +on one side, and into Dominik’s potato-patch, grunted all +the way. I turned off, and followed a slanting pathway +across the fields: and it followed still.—I felt hot all over. +My God! a strange sow!—Perhaps it was no sow! I went +round nigh the crucifix, and the pig after me.... I leapt +the ditch: it leaped too! Then I went to the mounds beyond +the crucifix.... After me still! Then I ran by the +pear-trees, and it came between my legs, and tripped me up.... +I wondered whether it was a possessed pig! I had +scarce got up, when it began to run on before me, with its +tail in the air. ‘Away with you, then, you pest of a beast!’ +I said. But it did not go from me: straight to my hut, +to my very hut, did it go! It passed the fence, most honourable +court! by the fence into the passage, and into the +room through the open door. So help me God! Amen!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And so you killed and ate it, did you?” the magistrate +asked, with a smile.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Killed? Ate?—Well, what was to be done? One day +went by: the pig would not go. A week passed, and there +was no getting rid of it: it always returned, squealing. My +wife gave it all she could to eat. Were we to let it starve? +<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>it was as much God’s creature as we were.... But let the +most honourable court, in its wisdom, take this into account: +what was I, a poor orphan, to do with it? Nobody +came for the beast, we were needy people; and it ate, and +ate ... as much at least as two other pigs would have +done. What then? In a month, we should have been eaten +out of house and home, aye, and out of our skins too.... +What, then, could we do? It was a case of eat or be +eaten.—So we did; but only a little of it; for they heard +of it in the village, and the Dominik woman complained to +the Soltys,<a id='r10'></a><a href='#f10' class='c002'><sup>[10]</sup></a> and came with him, and took everything away.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Everything, indeed!” interrupted the Dominik woman, +angrily. “And what became of the hind quarters?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ask that of Kruchek and the other dogs. We had put it +into the barn for the night. Now, the dogs were on the +watch, and there was a hole in the door; so they got in, +and had a good feast on ... what I am accused of +stealing.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So the sow went after you by herself, did it? Tell that +story to an idiot, not to this court! You thieving blackguard! +Who was it took the miller’s ram? who stole his +Reverence’s geese? Say who?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you seen who? have you seen?” shrieked Koziol’s +wife, rushing forwards to use her nails. But the other continued +mercilessly:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who plundered the organist’s potato-pit? Who is it +that snaps up everything missing in the village—be it +gosling, or chicken, or rake or hoe?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You carrion, you! All you did when a lass—what your +Yagna is doing now with the farm-lads—oh, no one reminds +you of that now, vile trollop that you have been!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>This stung Dominikova to the very quick. “You dare to +name my Yagna!” she roared furiously. “You dare! I’ll +knock your teeth down your throat!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Silence, hussies! or I shall have to drive you out!” said +Yacek, to quiet them, holding his trousers up with one hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The witnesses were then heard.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>Dominikova, the plaintiff, spoke first. She had taken a +subdued and pious tone of voice, every now and then calling +Our Lady of Chenstohova to witness. She averred that +the sow was hers, that Koziol had stolen it from the meadow +where it fed. She did not ask the most honourable court +to punish him for that—may our Lord give him a longer +time in purgatory instead!—but (and here she raised her +voice to its loudest tones) for having heaped such foul +outrages, and so publicly, upon Yagna and herself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Simon, Dominikova’s son, with clasped hands held under +his cap, as one saying prayers in church, and with his eyes +always fixed upon the judge, bore witness afterwards, in a +dull plaintive voice, saying that the sow was his mother’s, +that it was white all over, with a black patch about the tail, +and one ear torn by Lapa, Boryna’s dog, which had attacked +her last spring, and she had squealed so that he could +hear her from the barn.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then came the other witnesses, who all confirmed what +he said, while Magda poured denials and curses through the +grating, and Dominikova kept her eyes fixed on the holy +image, or on Koziol, who listened attentively, with glances +darted now at the witnesses, now at his wife.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The audience gave ear with intense interest, sometimes +uttering a murmur, or an ironical comment, or a peal of +laughter, severely suppressed by Yacek.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The case was gone into thoroughly, and only settled after +the adjournment of the court to discuss the matter; during +which time the people dispersed into the passages and outside +the building, to get a breath of air, take refreshments, speak +to the witnesses, or hold forth about their wrongs: others +again, to complain of injustice with fierce invectives, as is +usual on such occasions.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The adjournment over and sentence given, Boryna’s case +came on. Eva stood up in court, dandling her baby. With +floods of tears, she related how she had come to serve at +his house and worked herself off her legs, and never got +a kind word, nor a corner to sleep in, no, nor enough to +eat, so that she had to beg food from the neighbours, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>he had not paid her, but driven her away, and his own +child too, on to the high roads.—Here she burst into bitter +tears, and fell at the feet of the magistrates, screaming.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Such, most honourable court, is the wrong done me: and +this is his child!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna muttered indignantly: “She lies, like the wretch +that she is.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lie? Why, the whole village of Lipka knows....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That you are a wanton and a drab!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O most honourable court! and he used to call me Yevka +and names more tender still; and would bring me beads, and +often and often rolls, when he came from town; and would +say: ‘Here you are, Yevka, here you are, my dearest!’ +And now.... O Jesus! O Jesus!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>At that, she bellowed aloud.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You gipsy trull! Why not say I brought you a feather-bed +too, and cried: ‘Sleep under it, Yevka, sleep!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>There was a roar of laughter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, did you not? Was there anything you did not +promise me?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Good God!” exclaimed Boryna, in fierce bewilderment. +“It’s monstrous! And yet the lightning has not struck +her!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Honourable court, it is known to the world that this +thing has been: all Lipka can testify that I speak the +truth. Let the witnesses speak and bear testimony!” she +cried out, with a tempest of tears and ejaculations.</p> + +<p class='c004'>As a matter of fact, however, all they had to say +amounted only to bits of gossip and malicious talk: so +she set herself again to bring forward what proofs she had. +As a last resource, she displayed her baby and exposed it +to the eyes of the judges, while it kicked up its naked legs +and roared lustily.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The honourable court,” she cried out, “will see with +their own eyes whose it is: whose is this potato nose, whose +are these grey-brown blear eyes? Boryna and he are as +like as two drops of water.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But this was too much for the court’s gravity; and the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>audience was also convulsed with uproarious merriment, +when they compared the child with Boryna. Witticisms +came forth in plenty.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There’s a handsome lass for you. For all the world like +a skinned dog!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let the widower Boryna marry her: the boy will do for +a swineherd.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, she is getting as bald as a cow in spring.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A comely girl she is! Put her as a scarecrow in a millet-field; +all the birds will take fright.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Her face is smeared all over with grease and grime.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because she’s a thrifty soul: washes once a year to save +soap!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No wonder; she is so busy, having to light the Jews’ +stoves.”<a id='r11'></a><a href='#f11' class='c002'><sup>[11]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c004'>They were growing more and more caustic and biting +every moment, and Eva stood dumbstruck, with the vacant +look of a hunted dog in her eyes as she gazed round upon +the crowd, hazily revolving something or other in her mind, +when Dominikova called out aloud: “Be silent! It is a +sin to revile an unfortunate like her!” Whereupon there +was a sudden hush, and more than one man showed evident +signs of shame.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But the accusation failed completely.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna felt exceedingly relieved. Innocent as he was, he +would have felt keenly both the scandal of a condemnation +and the burden of an order to pay for the boy; and, as he +thought, the law would often enough punish the innocent +instead of the guilty: you never could tell. He knew many +such cases.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He left the place directly, and, waiting till Dominikova +joined him, began to consider the whole business again. +He could not make out Eva’s motive in thus accusing +him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, it is not her doing; she has not the headpiece for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>that. Someone else has been egging her on.—Who can it +be?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He went with Dominikova and Simon to have a drink and +a morsel to eat in a tavern; for it was past noon. Dominikova +hinted that the whole business was the blacksmith +his son-in-law’s work; but this he could not believe.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What would he get by that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The pleasure of worrying and mortifying you, and making +you a laughing-stock. That fellow would like to flay a +man alive, just for the delight of the thing!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“This spite of Eva’s—I cannot understand it. I never +harmed her in any way; nay, I gave his Reverence a sack +of oats at her bastard’s christening!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, she serves the miller; the miller is hand in glove +with the blacksmith.—Don’t you see?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I see, but cannot account for it.—Have another drink?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, please; but you first, Matthias.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They had another drink, then a third, and finished off +another pound of sausages, and half a loaf of bread; and +Boryna bought a lot of rolls for Yuzka and prepared to +depart.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come with me, Dominikova; we shall have a talk. It +is tedious to be by oneself.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All right; but I must go to church first, and say some +prayers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She was soon back, and off they started.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun was drawing westward by the time they reached +the forest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now and then they said a few words to each other, but +only out of courtesy: it would never do for them to sit moping +together. But they only talked just enough not to doze, +and to “keep their tongues wet,” as the saying goes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna whipped up the filly, which now, all in a lather, +and tired and overheated, was going too slowly. He would +whistle now and then, and again relapse into silence, ruminating +and pondering over something in his mind, and calculating +things: not infrequently stealing a look at the old +<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>woman, with that dried hard face, set and furrowed, and +in hue like bleached wax. Her toothless jaws moved a little, +as if she were praying silently. Sometimes she would +draw the red apron she had tied round her neck, further +over her brow; for the sun shone right into her face. She +sat motionless, save for the gleaming of her grey-brown +eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you dug all your potatoes?” he asked at length.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We have. And a pretty good crop it is.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All the easier for you to keep a pig.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am fattening one; it will come in handy during the +carnival.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Surely, surely.—They say that Valek, Rafal’s son, has +sent messengers to you with vodka.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, and others have done the same; but they have lost +their money. No, my Yagna is not for the likes of them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Raising her head, she looked him straight in the eyes, +like a hawk. But Boryna, a man of mature years, was not +confused as a youth might have been. He met her glance +with calm and unfathomable serenity. For a considerable +time neither spoke; each seemed vying in taciturnity with +the other.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was not fitting for Boryna to make the first advances. +How could he—he, already past middle age, one of the +first men in Lipka—blurt out to her that he had taken a +fancy to her Yagna? Nevertheless, being of a hot temperament, +he felt his choler rise within him, thus forced to +parley and beat about the bush.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova saw he was annoyed, and knew why; but +she would not help him out by so much as one word, and +continued to eye him in silence. At last, however, in order +to say something, she remarked:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You look as hot as though it were harvest-time.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because I am.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And indeed it was very hot. The forest was all round +them; its mighty barrier let no breath of air pass, and the +sun burned so fiercely that the tree-tops, scorched with its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>rays, were drooping over the road, while a faint fungus-like +odour, pungent in the nostrils, came up from the drying +pools and the dry oak-leaves on the ground.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do you know,” said the old woman, “I, and others too, +have often wondered why such a man as you, a man of +such high repute amongst us, so wealthy and so much more +able than most men—has no ambition to occupy some official +position?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are right to say I am without ambition. What +would such a post profit me? I was Soltys here for three +years: it cost me a pretty sum. I lost so much by it that +my wife was angry with me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She was quite right. To be an official always ought to +mean both honour and profit.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thank you! A great honour it is, surely, to have to +bow to the constables, and lout low to every clerk and every +underling at court.... And if taxes are unpaid, or a bridge +is out of order, or if a dog hit by a cart-shaft goes mad, +who is to blame? Why, the Soltys always! And the +profit! How many a fowl and goose and score of eggs have +I not had to send to the clerks and the district officials!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You say true; but then Peter the Voyt here has no +grounds of complaint. He has purchased some land, and +built a barn too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; but when he is Voyt no longer, what will he do?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then you think that....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, I have my eyes open, and can see a thing or two.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He is most conceited, and at sixes and sevens with the +priest.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And if he gets on at all, it is his wife’s doing: she is the +real Voyt, and holds all the cards in her hands.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>There was silence again for the space of a long pater +noster.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Tell me,” she said at last, very deliberately, “are you +not going to send anyone messengers with vodka?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, the desire of women is no longer with me: I am an +old man.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do not speak vain words. A man is old when he can +<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>go about no more, nor lift a spoon to his mouth by himself, +nor sit elsewhere but by the stove. Why, I have seen you +shouldering a sackful of rye!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Granted that I am yet hale: but who would care to have +me?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That you cannot know until you have tried.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Besides, my children are grown up, and I cannot take +the first lass that comes.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Make a deed of gift, and the very best of them will not +hold back.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A deed of gift! To get an acre of land, a girl would +take a beggar from the church porch.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What of men? They wouldn’t take a girl with a dowry, +would they?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He made no reply, but whipped the filly to a gallop.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Another silence ensued, broken only when they were out +of the forest and upon the poplar-lined road; when Boryna +suddenly exclaimed:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To the devil with the world as it goes on now! For +everything, nay, even for a good word, you must pay! It +is so bad that worse cannot be. Even children rise up +against their parents; there is nowhere any obedience, and +everyone would devour everyone else! The dogs!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They are fools, not remembering that we shall all lie +one day together in consecrated ground.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“One has scarce begun to be a man, when he flies in his +father’s face, loudly demanding a portion of his land; and +the young only scoff at the old. Scoundrels, for whom their +own village is a hole, who despise all ancient rules, and who—some +of them—are even ashamed of their peasant’s dress!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All because they have not the fear of God.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because or not because of that, things are wrong.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And will surely not mend.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They must! But who can compel men to do right?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God’s judgments! For behold, That Day will come, +and He will punish them!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, but before That Day, how many shall be lost!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Times are so bad, that a plague were better.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>“Times are bad, but men are so, too. What of the blacksmith? +And of the Voyt? They quarrel with our priest, +they make people rebel; they seduce them and are believed +by the purblind. That blacksmith, though my son-in-law, +is yet as poison to me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They continued to complain in chorus of the world’s +wickedness, as they looked through the poplars towards the +village they were nearing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the distance, there could be seen, outside the churchyard, +a row of women bending down, indistinctly visible +through a thin haze round them, and the dull monotonous +thudding sound of cluttering swingles came to them, borne +on the breeze from the low-lying meadows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Just the weather for scutching flax. I shall get down to +speak to them, for Yagna is there too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll drive you to her; it will make no difference to me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How very kind you are to-day, Matthias!” she said with +a sly smile.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They turned off from the poplar road to the by-way that +led over the fields to the churchyard. There, outside the +low wall of grey stone which surrounded it, in the shadow +of some birches and maples, and of a few crosses, too, which +leaned over the wall, hard on twenty women were very busily +scutching and beating the dry flax: a mist of threads +hung over them in the air, and a few filaments had caught +on to the yellow birch-leaves, or hung suspended from the +dark-hued arms of the crosses. Further down, fires had +been kindled in pits, over and across which poles were laid, +and upon them damp flax was drying.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The swingles were hard at work, and all the womenfolk +bent and rose with quick short jerks up and down: now and +then one or another stood up, beat a wisp of flax free from +remnants of woody matter, and, rolling it up, tossed it on to +a piece of linen spread out in front of her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun, being at present over the forest, shone directly +in their faces, but they did not mind: work and laughter +and merry talk never ceased for an instant.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God bless your work!” cried Boryna to Yagna, who was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>swingling the flax with all her might. She had nothing on +but her white smock, a red petticoat, and an apron tied over +her head against the dust.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Bless you for the wish!” she returned blithely, raising +her dark-blue eyes to his, while a smile lit up her handsome +sunburnt face.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is it quite dry, dear?” her mother asked, fingering the +scutched flax.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Dry as a peppercorn; quite brittle.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And again she eyed the old man with a smile that made +him tingle all over. He smacked his whip and drove away, +looking back at her again and again, though she was not to +be seen any more; for his mind’s eye saw her still.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A girl as graceful as a hind!” he muttered. “Aye, +even so!”</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>Sunday had come round: a bright September Sunday, +with plenty of gossamers and sunshine in the air.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All Boryna’s livestock was feeding in the stubble +beyond the barn; and Kuba, watching heedfully over them +in the shadow of a tall and dome-like cornstack, was at the +same time teaching Vitek his prayers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now attend to what I am telling you,” he said solemnly; +“these are holy words.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’m attending, Kuba, I’m attending.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then why are you looking at those orchards?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I see the Klembas have got some apples on their trees +still.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh! and you’d like to eat them? Did you plant them?—Come, +say the Creed again.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You did not hatch the partridges, either; yet you have +taken the whole brood.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Silly lad! the apples are Klemba’s, but partridges belong +to our Lord. Do you see?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But the field where you took them belongs to the Squire.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And the field, too, is the Lord’s. You’re too clever by +half.—Now say the Creed.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He did so, but in haste, for it hurt him to stay on his +knees so long.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I think that filly is going into Michael’s clover!” he +exclaimed, preparing to run after her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Don’t trouble about her, but say your prayers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He went through them at last, but had to rest on his +heels, and turned and twisted in every direction. A band +of sparrows having settled on a tree close by, he shied a clod +of earth at them, and at once beat his breast in contrition.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>“Ah, what about the Offering at the end? Swallowed like +an overripe pear, I suppose?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He said the Offering, and immediately started up to wake +Lapa and play with it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The calf-like witling! Always scampering about!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you going to take the birds to his Reverence?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, I am.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They would be nice, if roasted here....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have potatoes to roast. What would you more?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“See, they are going to church already!” cried Vitek, +glancing through the hedge and the orchard-trees at the +red aprons that went twinkling along the road.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was pretty warm, and all the doors and windows of the +huts had been thrown wide open. Here and there, in front +of the huts, some were still washing their faces, or combing +or plaiting their hair, or beating their Sunday garments, +which had suffered from a week’s stay in the trunks; but +others had already started, in raiment of the hues of vermilion +poppies, or saffron-tinted dahlias, or nasturtium flowers. +Women and girls, in bright array, farm-hands, little children, +grave husbandmen, in long white capotes that reminded +you of huge sheaves of rye, were all slowly wending +their way to church along the roads that led to the pond, +which reflected the sunbeams like a golden trencher.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And joyfully the big bells boomed, and told of Sunday, +and rest, and prayer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba had meant to wait till they rang no longer, but his +patience gave way, so, putting the partridges under his +capote, he said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek! as soon as they have done ringing, drive the +cattle to the byre, and then come to church.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He then started off—as fast as he could, for he was very +lame—along the road, bordered with orchards, and so +strewn with yellow linden leaves, that he seemed to be +walking over a carpet of motley fallow hue.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest’s dwelling stood over against the church, at +the bottom of a large garden, in which there were trees still +laden with green pears or ruddy apples. All over the porch +<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>there grew a wild vine, the leaves of which were now of a +rich crimson. Kuba stopped outside, embarrassed, and +looking timidly in at the window and the passage. He +durst not go in, and stayed by a large flower-bed, gay with +roses, gilly-flowers, and asters, whose fragrance was very +sweet. From the roof, green with moss, a flock of white +doves flew down to settle on the porch.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest was walking in his garden, saying his Office; +but time and again he would shake an apple or a pear-tree. +The fruit fell in a sounding shower, and he gathered them +up in the skirts of his soutane.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba came up to him, and humbly embraced his knees.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What is it you say?—Ah, Kuba, Boryna’s man.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes. I have brought your Reverence a few partridges.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thanks for your gift. Come this way.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba accordingly entered the passage, but stopped at the +threshold of the room. He feared to go in, and would only +look through the open door at the various pictures that +hung against the walls. He crossed himself, and breathed +a devout sigh, so dazzled by the splendour he saw, that the +tears started to his eyes, and he felt like saying prayers. +Only he was afraid to kneel down upon the polished slippery +floor, lest he should soil it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently the priest came out of the room, saying, as he +handed him a <i>zloty</i>:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God reward you, Kuba; you are a good man and a +godly one, who never miss church on Sundays.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba again embraced the priest’s knees, so overwhelmed +with bliss that he never knew how he got out and on to +the road.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, so much money for so few birds! How I love +his Reverence!” he whispered, looking over the coins given +him. He had more than once brought him birds, or a +leveret, or mushrooms; but never had he received so much: +at most, ten kopeks and a kind word. And now! O sweet +Lord! a whole <i>zloty</i>!—And he had called Kuba into his +room besides, and said such gentle words! Lord, Lord!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“None but the priest has regard for poor people, no one +<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>else!—May God and the Blessed Virgin of Chenstohova +grant him health!—Yes, a good man you are, and a kind +one!—All the village, farm-hands and owners, only give +me nicknames—call me Cripple, Good-for-Nothing, and +Hanger-on. No one else speaks to me with the least kindness +or compassion ... no one cares for me, but the +horses and the dogs. And yet I am of an honest family: +no foundling, but a farmer’s son.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He raised his head higher at the thought, straightened +himself, and looked almost defiantly on those about him +going to the churchyard, and on the horses which stood +harnessed to the carts outside the enclosure. He donned +his cap, and covered his head of tangled hair, and slowly, +with dignified mien, made for the church; thrusting his +hands into his girdle, as a farmer would have done, though +the dust flew up as he dragged his lame leg after him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>No. This day he would not, as his wont was, stay in +the entrance. He pushed boldly through the crowd, even +close to the High Altar railings, where only the husbandmen +used to stand, where his master was standing, and the +Voyt himself, and the men who carried the canopy over his +Reverence in the procession, and those who, taper in hand, +surrounded the altar at the Elevation!</p> + +<p class='c004'>They regarded him with amazement and indignation. +More than once he heard taunts and words of upbraiding, +and was scowled at, as one scowls at a dog that goes where +it is not wanted. But to-day he did not mind. The money +was tight in his clenched fist; his mind, full of sweet and +gentle feelings. He had a sensation as if he had but now +been shriven; nay, he felt even better.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Divine Service began. He knelt down close to the Communion +Table, and sang along with the others, his eyes +piously fixed upon the altar, whereon was seen the image +of God the Father: a hoary magnate, stern-looking—just +like the Squire of Djazgova Vola. In the centre, Our Lady +of Chenstohova, in gilt raiment, looked down upon him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On every side, gold shone bright, tapers gleamed, and +nosegays of red flowers were flaming. From the walls, from +<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>the stained-glass windows, austere saintly visages, surrounded +with aureoles, bent above him; streams of gold, +purple, and violet came down, flooding his face and head +with rainbow tints, and he felt as when he plunged into +the pond at sundown, when its waters reflected the sky. +Dissolved into ecstasies with the joy of the beauty before +him, he was too much awed to move, and knelt motionless, +gazing at the sweet dark maternal face of the Virgin of +Chenstohova, and with parched lips said prayer after prayer, +and sang with such force and fervour, welling up from the +inmost depths of his enraptured heart, that his husky tuneless +voice was heard high above the others.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Kuba! you are bleating like the Jew’s goat!” someone +whispered at his elbow.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For the Lord Jesus and His Virgin Mother!” he replied.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest had now gone up to the pulpit. All present +lifted their heads to gaze on that white-surpliced figure, +which, bending forward over the people, read the Gospel of +that Sunday to them. This ended, the sermon began: long, +but so powerful that many wept tears, and many heads +were bowed down in remorse. Kuba’s looks were fixed on +him, as on some holy image: he marvelled at the thought +that this was the very man who had just talked with him, +and given him a <i>zloty</i>. For now he was transfigured into +an archangel in a chariot of fiery light. His face turned +pale and his eyes flashed, as he raised his voice to denounce +the sins of his people: greed and drunkenness, lust and +spite, disrespect for the aged, and ungodly behaviour. +And his voice resounded, calling upon them, and entreating +and beseeching them to repent; until Kuba, dismayed +at the thought of all these sins, and the pity and the sorrow +of them, wept aloud, and all the congregation after him—not +women only, but burly husbandmen as well—and the +whole place was filled with the sounds of sobs. Then, when the +priest, concluding with an Act of Contrition, turned towards +the altar, and went down on his knees, a cry ran through +the building; all the people fell prostrate on the pavement, +like a forest blown down by a whirlwind; and a cloud of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>dust rose over the multitude that lay thus, tearful and +lamenting, heart-broken and contrite, imploring the mercy +of God.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then silence again prevailed—the silence of prayer and +of heartfelt communing with God: for now High Mass had +begun. The organ poured forth low muffled sounds of awe +and adoration; and Kuba’s soul was full, even to bursting, +of love and ecstatic bliss.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Suddenly the accents of the priest were audible from the +altar, floating above the bowed heads of the multitude—strange +thrilling sounds, and holy, holy words; and then +the bells thundered in a rapid volley, and the incense rose +in odoriferous pillars, wrapping the worshippers in a sweet-smelling +mist. Oh, then Kuba was seized with such blissful +rapture that he could only sigh, and stretch his arms +wide, and beat his breast, swooning almost with the joy of +his own nothingness!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O Jesus! Jesus whom I love!” he murmured, in dazed +annihilation. But he held the <i>zloty</i> tight in his clenched +fist: for now the Elevation was over, and Ambrose was now +coming round with the plate, clinking the coins thereon to +tell of the collection for the church tapers. Kuba rose, +threw his <i>zloty</i> on to the plate, and slowly took back from it +a few kopeks—just as he had seen the farmers doing many +a time. And with infinite delight, he heard Ambrose say:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May God reward you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently they brought the tapers round, for the Blessed +Sacrament was exposed, and there was to be a procession +round the church afterwards. Kuba put forth his hand, +having a great mind for a larger one: but his eye met the +cold reproving glance of Dominikova, who was standing +near him, along with Yagna: so he chose a small taper. +This he lit immediately; for the priest was holding the +Monstrance in his hands, and turning towards the people. +Intoning the hymn, the Celebrant slowly descended the +altar-steps and into the lane at once formed for him—a lane +of singers, of flickering lights, and gaudy colours, and +droning voices. The procession began to move, the organ +<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>thundered mightily, the bells joined in with clamorous uproar, +and the congregation took up the chant with voices +raised in the grand unison of faith. In front of the crowd, +and of the twinkling sinuous lines of tapers moving on, +there gleamed a silver crucifix; following this came the holy +images, dimly seen through a haze of cambric, and surrounded +with flowers and lace and ornaments of tinsel. The +procession arrived at the great church door, through which +the sun irradiated the clouds of incense that it pierced; and +as the banners stooped to pass, the breezes made them float +and flutter and flap, like the wings of some great green +and purple birds.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Round the church the procession went, Kuba sheltering +his taper well with one hand, as he doggedly limped on, +close to the priest, over whom Boryna, the blacksmith, the +Voyt, and Thomas Klemba bore a red canopy. Under this, +the golden-rayed Monstrance shot forth its beams, and was +so directly turned to the sun that you could see it shine +through the semi-transparency of the Sacred Host at the +centre.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He was so absorbed that he more than once stumbled +or trod upon someone’s foot.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Clumsy one, take heed!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You lame scarecrow, you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But he did not hear these invectives. Grandly the chants +resounded, rising like billows of melody that dashed and +broke around that pale white sun within the Monstrance. +The throats of bronze overhead unceasingly rolled out their +sonorous notes into the air, till the maples and the linden-trees +shook their boughs, and now and then some reddish +leaf flew down from their tops, like a frightened bird. And +high, very high above them, over the church steeple and the +drooping trees, a flock of startled doves was wheeling.</p> + +<hr class='c012'> + +<p class='c004'>The service was over, and they all poured into the +cemetery round the church, Kuba amongst the rest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Though he knew there would be a feast that day at the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>farm-house, he was in no hurry, but stayed to talk with his +acquaintances, and gradually drew near his masters, where +Antek and his wife were standing in conversation with +others, as is the custom after High Mass.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Another group, that had met in the road outside the lich-gate, +had for leader the blacksmith: a stalwart fellow, +dressed town-fashion from head to foot, in a black capote +(spotted with drops of wax on the back!), and a dark-blue +cap; he wore his trousers over his boots, and a silver chain +adorned his waistcoat. His face was ruddy, his hair curly, +his moustache red, his talk loud. And his laugh too: his +was the smartest wit in all the village, and when he made +a butt of anyone—well, that man’s lot was not happy. +Boryna watched him and listened. He could make out +that the blacksmith spared not even his own people. Was +he, then, likely to spare a father-in-law, with whom he was +at odds for his wife’s dowry? But Boryna could not hear +much: Dominikova, just leaving church with Yagna, now +passed in front of him. They did not get on fast, for they +stopped in the churchyard to greet or converse with many +people. He heard a few words about the priest, said by +Dominikova in low and pious tones; meanwhile Yagna +looked about her at the people. Having the advantage of +a stature as tall as the tallest there, she was also looked at +by many a farm-hand, who smoked cigarettes and grinned +at her from outside the lich-gate. She was indeed a fine +woman, and well dressed, and with such a bearing that +many a country gentleman’s daughter could scarce vie +with her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The girls and married women who passed by all gazed +on her, either in envy or simply with the desire of feasting +their eyes on her striped skirt of rich stuff and ever-changing +rainbow tints; her black highlows, laced up with red shoestrings +to where the dainty white stockings appeared; her +corset of cherry-coloured velvet, gold-embroidered, flaming, +dazzling; and the strings of amber and coral beads she wore +round her full white throat, whence a bunch of particoloured +ribbons streamed down her back.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>But Yagna took no note of envious looks. Her deep-blue +eyes strayed to and fro, till they met Antek’s, fixed upon +her; then she flushed crimson, and plucked at her mother’s +sleeve to go home.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Wait a little, Yagna!” the latter called after her, greeting +Boryna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She could hardly get away, for the farm-hands were +now crowding about her, with salutations and jests—the +latter addressed to Kuba, and not without a sharp tang. +For Kuba was following her, and staring as at some fair +picture. With a gesture of contempt, he turned to limp +home; his masters were going that way, and he had to see +to the horses.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, she’s a picture!” he blurted out, when he had +seated himself in the porch.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka was just then bringing the dinner in. “Who’s a +picture?” she asked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He cast his eyes down, abashed and afraid lest he should +have betrayed himself. But the dinner was long and +abundant; so he soon forgot all about that.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They all ate leisurely, with grave miens and in silence, +until the edge of their appetite was blunted, and they could +now talk and enjoy their meal with more dainty zest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka was that day on duty as housewife, and saw to it +that the platters should be always properly supplied, ever +and anon bringing more food, lest the bottom of any dish +perchance be seen.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The porch where they were dining was obviously the +best place in such pleasant weather. Lapa ran to and fro, +whining for food, and even rising up to look into the dishes, +till someone threw him a bone. He carried it off, and +barked for joy when his masters called him by name, and +jumped at the sparrows, perched upon the hedge in expectation +of crumbs to eat.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Passers-by merrily wished them joy: to which good wishes +they all would answer with thanks in chorus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I hear you have been taking some birds to his Reverence,” +Boryna said.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>“Yes, I have.” And, setting down his spoon, Kuba told +how the priest had invited him into the room, and what a +number of big books he had seen there.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When has he time to read them all?” Yuzka wondered.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When? Why, of an evening. He walks about the +room, and drinks tea, and is continually reading.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Books of piety they must all be,” Kuba added.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What else should they be? Not spelling-books, surely!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He reads the paper the village factor brings him daily,” +Hanka added. And her husband remarked:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, for by the papers we know what’s done all the +world over.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The smith takes a paper in, and the miller too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A paper fit for the smith, no doubt,” remarked Boryna, +with a sneer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As it happens, the same paper that his Reverence takes +in,” was Antek’s hot retort.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You know, then? Have you read it?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, I have ... more than once.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’ll get none the wiser for his counsels.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And whom do you hold wise? One with seventeen +acres, or eight head of cattle, perhaps?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hold your tongue before I lose my temper! Always +picking quarrels with me!—You’re too full of bread—<i>my</i> +bread!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, so full that like a fishbone it sticks in my throat!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then seek better bread. Hanka’s three acres will give +you rolls!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Potatoes only; but these none will grudge me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I grudge you nothing.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No? I work like an ox, nor ever get a kind word.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Elsewhere life is easier, and food given free!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Elsewhere it is better, surely.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then go and try it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, empty-handed? Not I!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll give you a staff, to keep the dogs away.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father!” Antek shouted, starting to his feet, but falling +back at once, for Hanka caught him round the waist. The +<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>old man glared at him fiercely: then, crossing himself as if +dinner were over, he went out and into his room, saying in +a hard voice:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“D’ye think I’ll let myself be pensioned off by you? +Never!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>All rose at once and left the porch, except Antek, who +stayed alone there, pondering. Kuba took the horses to +the clover beyond the barn, and lay down to sleep beside +a cornstack. But he could not; the full meal lay heavy +on his chest. Moreover, it now occurred to him that if +he had a gun he could kill birds enough—and, it might +be, a leveret or two into the bargain—to offer every Sunday +to his Reverence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The smith could forge him a gun. He had made one +for the keeper; and this, when let off in the woods, was +plainly heard in the village!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A first-rate workman!—But then he wants five roubles +to make one!” He fell into a brown study.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Where am I to get them from? Winter is at hand: I +must buy me a sheepskin coat. My boots, too, will not last +beyond Yule-tide—Well, there are due me ten roubles, and +two bits of clothing—trousers and a shirt. A sheepskin +coat, short though it may be, will come to five roubles. +Boots, three more. I must get a cap; and a rouble will have +to go besides, for his Reverence to say a mass for my departed. +So then nothing at all will be left!”—He was disappointed, +fumbled in his pockets for a little tobacco that +might be left, and so came upon the ready money he had +previously forgotten.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! here I have some cash!”—He no longer cared to +sleep. From the tavern there came a far-off sound of +music, an echo of shouts, softened by the distance.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There they are—dancing, and drinking vodka, and +smoking too!” he sighed; and, lying down again on his +stomach, he glanced over at the hobbled horses, that had +gathered together and were nibbling at each other’s necks. +Then he decided that in the evening he too would go to the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>tavern, purchase some tobacco, and just have a look at +the dancers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From time to time, he would glance at his money, then +at the sun, which was that day going down with exceeding +sluggishness, as if it also needed its Sunday rest. His longing +for the tavern was now so great that he could hardly +bear it; but he refrained from going just then, and only +turned over on his side, and groaned within himself. Antek +and Hanka had come out from behind the barn, and were +walking along the dividing pathway between the fields.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek went foremost; Hanka, leading her little boy by the +hand, came after. At times, as they walked on slowly, they +spoke a few words. Then Antek would bend down, and +stroke the blades that were sprouting forth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is growing up.—As thick as the bristles of a brush,” +he muttered, casting his eyes over those acres, sown by himself +and for himself: the wages of work done for his father.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thick, yes: but Father’s corn is better still. It grows +up like a forest,” Hanka said, casting a look on the neighbouring +cornfields.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The land might be better manured, had we but three +cows.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And a horse of our own....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, then we might raise some fowls or things for +market. As it is, what can we do? Father counts every +husk of chaff, and thinks a lot of a potato-peeling.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And taunts us with every morsel he gives!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They could speak no more. Their hearts were too full +of gall and bitterness, and the angry gnawing pain of +revolt.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After a time: “Eight acres or thereabouts would be our +share, if ...” he observed, absently.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No more. There’s Yuzka, and the smith’s wife, and +Gregory and ourselves,” she counted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If we paid money down to the smith, and kept the hut, +and sixteen acres with it?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But have you the money to pay?” she cried, overwhelmed +<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>with a sense of helplessness; and the tears started +to her eyes, as she gazed at her father-in-law’s fields—that +land, precious as pure gold, whereon, aye, on every inch of +it, wheat and rye and barley and beets might be grown.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Don’t cry, you silly thing; at any rate, we shall have +eight acres of our own one day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, if we had but half as many, with the hut and the +cabbagepatch!” She pointed to the long stretch of ground, +bluish-green with heads of cabbages; and they both bent +their steps that way. At its edge they sat down under a +bush; Hanka suckled the child, which had begun to cry for +food, while Antek rolled a cigarette, lit it, puffed, and +scowled.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He said not a word to his wife of the pain that was devouring +him, and burned within his heart like coals of fire. +For neither could he have told her, nor she have understood +him: as is usual with women, who have no sort of initiative, +who neither reflect nor catch the sense of things, but who +live—so to say—only as the shadows which men throw.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But,” Hanka went on to say, “Father has ready money +by him, has he not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That he has!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, he brought Yuzka a coral necklace worth as much +as a cow; and he is always sending money to Gregory +through the Voyt.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek assented, but his mind was wandering elsewhere.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is wronging us all!—And the clothes your mother +left! he has them locked up, nor so much as lets them see +the light: skirts and kerchiefs, caps and beads....” She +went on thus a long time, telling of all these things, and of +wrongs done, and grievances, and hopes: but Antek remained +obstinately silent. At last, out of patience, she +shook him by the shoulder:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you awake?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, and listening. Talk away, it will do you good. +And when you have done, say so.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka, who was naturally inclined to weep, and had +many a cause for sadness besides, here burst into tears; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>he spoke to her, she cried, as to a girl he scorned: he cared +neither for her nor for her child.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At this, Antek rose to his feet, and replied contemptuously:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lift up your voice: these”—with a toss of his head +towards some crows flying past them—“these will hear and +take pity on you!” and, settling his cap on his head, he +made for the village with great strides.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Antek! Antek!” she called after him, in sorrow; but he +did not even turn his head.</p> + +<p class='c004'>With a very heavy heart, she wrapped up the baby, and +made for home.—So he would not let her talk to him about +things, or complain of anything. Oh, he was very friendly, +Antek, he was indeed! It was always, Work, work, work; +and, See to this, and to that, and to the other thing; and, +Stay at home! Nothing else! No consideration, no compassion, +no fellowship at all!—Other women enjoyed themselves +in the tavern, or went to a wedding.—But Antek! +She knew not what to make of him. Sometimes he was so +gentle, that gentler could not be; but again, and for weeks +together, he would scarce utter a word to her, or give her a +glance: it was think, think, think—all the time. True, he +had cause enough.... Why should not his father make +over the land to him now?... It was high time for the +old man to retire and let them keep him.... If he did, +she would take as much care of him as she would of her +own father....</p> + +<p class='c004'>She would willingly have talked to Kuba; but he leaned +back against the cornstack, pretending to sleep, though the +sun was shining straight into his eyes. And no sooner had +she disappeared round the corner of the barn than he got +up, brushed the straw from his clothes, and slowly took his +way by the orchards to the tavern.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The tavern stood at the farther end of the village, beyond +the priest’s house, at the beginning of the poplar road.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There were not many people there yet. The music was +heard at intervals, but no one had begun to dance. The +lads and lasses preferred to romp in the orchard, or to stand +<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>about the house, or close to the walls, where plenty of +women and girls were sitting on piles of deal logs, still fresh +and yellow from the forest. The biggest room, with its +dingy smoke-tinged rafters, was all but empty; the tiny +window-panes, grey with dust, let so little pass of the red +glow of the approaching sundown, that scarcely any got +through to fall on the worn uneven floor; and in the nooks +and corners the dusk was very deep.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Only Ambrose was there, with a member of the village +Confraternity; they stood, bottle in hand, chatting together +close to the window, and frequently drinking to each other’s +health.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagustynka was at the tavern, too, making herself unpleasant +to everyone, and uncompromisingly angry with the +whole world, because her children had treated her ill, and +she had in her old age to seek work away from them. No +one, however, answered her invectives; so she made for +the small dark chamber, where the smith was sitting together +with Antek and several other younger men.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A lamp swung from the murky beams, shedding a dim +yellowish light on heads shaggy with luxuriant blond hair. +The men sat in a circle, with their elbows on the table. All +eyes were fixed on the blacksmith, who, flushed and bending +forward, now stretched out his arms, now banged the table +with his fists; but he spoke, nevertheless, in subdued tones.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Outside, the bass-viols were grumbling, like the humming +flight of a bumble-bee that has got into a room. The violin +would suddenly shed forth strong loud notes, as of a bird +calling its mate; or the cymbal set up a drumming quavering +din: and then all would again be quiet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba had made straight for the bar, behind which +Yankel, the Jewish tavern-keeper, was sitting, in his skullcap +and shirt-sleeves (for the weather was warm), stroking +his grey beard, swaying to and fro, and reading out of a +book he held close to his eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba, taking thought, came forward step by step, counted +his money over, scratched his head, and then stood still, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>till Yankel noticed him, and without interruption in his +prayers and swaying motions, jingled the glasses once or +twice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“One-eighth of a litre—but no water in it!” was his order +at last.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yankel silently held his left hand out for the money, and +throwing the verdigris-eaten coins into a tray, inquired:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“In a glass?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not in a boot, I suppose!” Kuba returned. Withdrawing +to the very end of the bar, he drank off the first glass, +spat on the ground, and looked round the room; the second +dispatched, he held the flask up to the light, saw it empty, +and pounded on the bar with it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Another!—And a packet of tobacco!” he ordered; more +boldly now, for the vodka was filling him with pleasant +warmth, and a peculiar sense of confidence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Got your wages to-day, Kuba?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not likely. Is it New Year’s Day?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have a little rum?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No. I don’t care.” He counted his money, and sorrowfully +glanced at the rum-bottle.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I’ll trust you; don’t I know Kuba?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I dare not.—‘Who purchases on trust will soon not have +a crust,’” he answered, dryly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Nevertheless, Yankel left the rum-bottle close at his elbow. +He wanted not to take it, and meant to go out; but the +rum had such a scent that he at last gave way, and took a +long draught on the impulse of the moment.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“This money, did you earn it in the forest?” Yankel +inquired, with patient importunity.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Caught birds in a net; gave six to his Reverence. He +gave me a <i>zloty</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A <i>zloty</i> for six, did he? Why, I would have given you +five kopeks for each of them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But—but——” cried Kuba, astounded, “are partridges +kosher?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Never mind about that; only bring me lots of them, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>for every one you bring, you will get five kopeks of ready +money. And the rum you have drunk will be thrown into +the bargain. Is it well?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, Yankel! Five kopeks for each?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My word is no idle wind. For those six partridges, +Kuba, you would have got, not two-eighths of a litre of +vodka, but four! together with rum, and a herring, and a +roll, and a packet of tobacco. Do you understand?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I do. Half a litre, and a herring, and ... I am not a +fool, I can make it all out.—Quite true—Half a litre, and +rum, and tobacco, and rolls, and one entire herring....” +He was by this time somewhat fuddled by the fumes of the +vodka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will you bring the birds to me, Kuba?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Half a litre, and a herring, and.... Yes, I will.—You +see, had I but a gun,” he continued, his brain now a little +clearer; but then he fell to counting again. “A sheepskin, +now, will come to five roubles ... and boots, too, I +need ... three roubles. No, I can’t manage it: the smith +wants five for a gun—as much from me as from Rafal.—No!” +He was thinking out loud.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yankel make a swift calculation with a bit of chalk, and +then whispered low in his ear:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Could you shoot a doe?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“With my fists—how? With a gun I could.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Can you shoot then—properly?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’re a Jew, Yankel, so you don’t know this: but everybody +here knows I went along with the masters in the last +insurrection; that’s how I got shot in the leg. Oh, yes, yes, +I can shoot!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll get you a gun and powder, and whatever you may +want. Only, what you shoot you are to bring to me, +Kuba! For a doe, you shall have a whole rouble. You +hear me? a whole rouble! For the powder, you will pay +fifteen kopeks, that I shall deduct for every doe shot. +Then, for the wear and tear of the gun, I shall want half +a bushel of oats.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A rouble for a doe? and fifteen kopeks for the powder?... +<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>A whole rouble? How do you make that out?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yankel again went over every particular. Kuba only +understood one point.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take oats out of the horses’ mouths?” he said. “That +I’m not going to do.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why should you? Boryna has oats ... not only in +the mangers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But—but that would be like....” He stared at +Yankel, and tried to make things out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They all do that! Did you never wonder where the +farm-hands got all their money from? How else are they +to have their tobacco, and their nip of vodka, and their +dance of Sundays?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How? what? you scurvy fellow! Am I a thief, say?” +he suddenly thundered out, striking on the table with his +fist, so that the glasses rang.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! Kuba, you’ll fly out at me, will you? Then pay +your score and go to the devil!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But he neither paid nor left. He was penniless, and in +debt to the Jews besides. So he only drooped heavily over +the bar, in an attempt to make out the reckoning. And +Yankel, growing kind, poured him out some more rum—pure +this time—and said not a word.</p> + +<p class='c004'>More and more people had by now thronged into the +tavern, for the twilight had deepened, and the lamps were +lit. The music sounded to a quicker measure; the noise +waxed loud; the folk formed groups around the bar, or +along the walls, or in the centre of the room. They talked, +gossiped, grumbled; and some drank one to another. But +as a rule this was at rare intervals. For how could they +do otherwise? They had not come to carouse, but only—well, +so: to meet in a neighbourly way, and confabulate, +and learn what there was to be learned. It was Sunday, +and there was surely no sin in indulging one’s curiosity a +little, and drinking a few glasses here and there with one’s +acquaintances: provided always it was done seemingly, +without offending God. His Reverence himself did not +forbid that. Why, even beasts of burden, for example, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>were glad and required to rest after labour! So the elderly +husbandmen sat at the table, and certain of the women, +too, in red petticoats and red kerchiefs, each looking like +a hollyhock in bloom. And as all talked at once, the murmur +of voices filled the whole place, like the rustling of a +great wood; and the trampling of feet was as the strokes +of flails beating the wheat upon the threshing-floor: while +the fiddle sang out with a merry tune:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“<i>Who will—who will after me?</i>” they cried, and the bass-viols +growled the reply:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“<i>All must follow—follow thee!</i>” Meanwhile the cymbal, +fluttering about with a sound as of laughter, made a joyful +noise with its jingling little bells.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There were not many dancers; but these stamped with +such lusty goodwill that the floor creaked, the table rocked, +the bottles clinked one against the other now and then, +or even a glass would be knocked over.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But it was no grand affair after all: the day was one of +no special solemnity, such as a wedding or a betrothal in +church. They merely danced to have a little fun and make +their backs and their legs straighter from the week’s work. +Only, there were the lads who were to be taken into the +army towards the end of autumn: those drank deep for very +grief. And no wonder, having so soon to go amongst +strangers, and into a foreign land.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Of these, the Voyt’s young brother was the noisiest; and +after him, Martin Byalek, Thomas Sikora, Paul Boryna +(a first cousin of Antek who had also come at twilight to +the tavern: only that day he did not dance, but sat in the +smaller room with the smith and his companions), and +lastly Franek from the mill, a short, thickset, curly-headed +young man: the greatest talker of them all, a rakish +youngster much given to joking, and so excessively fond +of girls that his face was seldom without a bruise or a +scratch. This evening he was quite tipsy to start with, and +stood near the bar now, along with fat Magda (from the +organist’s house), who was six months gone with child.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>The priest had given him public reproof from the pulpit, +and urged him to marry her. But Franek would not obey, +because he had to go to the army in autumn, and what +should he do with a wife there?</p> + +<p class='c004'>Magda now drew him into a corner, and was saying +something in a tearful voice; but he answered as ever:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’re a fool. Did I entice you, say? I’ll pay for the +christening, and give you a rouble or so—as much as I +choose to give.” He was stupefied with drink, and pushed +her away so roughly that she sank down on the ground near +Kuba, who was sleeping close to the stove, his head in the +ashes. Then Franek went off to drink again with Ambrose +and the farmers, who were all willing to pay for him, to get +their corn ground sooner.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have a drink, Franek, and pray get my stuff ground +quick: my wife is worrying me—says she hasn’t enough +flour to make any more dumplings.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! and mine is continually grumbling, because we +have no groats.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And mine must have oatmeal for the pig we are +fattening.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Franek drank, promised everything, and bragged very +loud about what he could do. It was by his orders, he said, +that everything was done at the mill. The miller had to +do his will ... and if not! well, he, Franek, knew of +means to cause vermin to breed in the flour-bins—to make +the stream run dry—to kill the fishes till the pond should +stink—and rot the flour, so that it would be good for +nothing in the world....</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And I, if you did that to me, would pluck the wool off +your curly ram’s head!” cried a voice: it was Yagustynka’s. +She was always present where she found most company, +being there most likely to find also some gossip or kinsman +to offer her a drop of vodka, fearing her acrimonious tongue. +Franek too, drunk as he was, felt apprehensive, and +answered her not a word. She knew, indeed, too much +about him and his management of the mill. Triumphant, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>and also rather flustered with drink, she set her arms +akimbo, and danced and stamped and shouted in time with +the music.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What I say is true,” the smith in the adjoining room remarked; +“for there it stands, in print in the papers—letters +as big as an ox. There is no nation on earth that lives +as we do. Not one!—Why, every big landowner domineers +over us; so does every priest; so does every official. And +all we have to do is work, and starve, and bow low to all +men, lest they strike us in the face!—We have so little +land of our own, that—for many of us—there presently +will not be the least little patch left.... Meanwhile, the +Squire has more land to himself than two villages put together!—Yesterday +they were saying in court that there is +to be a redistribution of land.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Whose land?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The gentlemen’s, of course.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagustynka, who had come in, leaned over the table and +laughed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Did you give it them, that you take it away! You are +marvellous free with other people’s property!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Folk have self-government there,” the smith continued, +without heeding the old woman’s interruption. “There, +everybody goes to school; they all live in gentlemen’s +houses, and are gentlemen.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Where may that be?” Yagustynka asked of Antek, who +sat at the farther end of the table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“In warm countries.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then,” she screamed out angrily, “why does the smith +not go there himself? The dirty dog! he is throwing dust +in your eyes, lying to you ... and you blockheads believe +him!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagustynka, pray be so good as to go peacefully whence +you came.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, I will not! The tavern is for us all; and I, poor as +I am, have as much right here as you. You play the +teacher here! you, who serve the Jews, who cringe to the +officials, who pull off your cap to the Squire from a mile +<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>away! You loud-mouthed ranter, you! Oh, I know +of....” She said no more. The smith had taken her +under the ribs, pushed the door open with his foot, and +pitched her into the big room, where she lay sprawling on +the floor.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Without a word of reviling, she picked herself up, and +called out cheerily:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As strong as a horse, you are! I’d fain have such a +husband!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The folk burst into a guffaw, and she went out to curse +in silence and alone.</p> + +<p class='c004'>By this time the tavern had begun to empty; the music +had ceased, and the people were going home. The night +was warm and the moon shone bright: no one stayed but +the recruits, who shouted and drank their fill, and Ambrose, +who, being exceeding mellow, had rushed into the middle of +the road, singing and reeling, from one side to the other.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The knot of men who had the blacksmith for leader had +also left the place.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The recruits too, a little later, when Yankel was putting +out the lights, staggered forth, all arm in arm, and went +down the road, bawling songs and howling and bellowing +so that the dogs bayed at them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba alone remained, so fast asleep in the ashes, that +Yankel had to awaken him. He would not rise, though, +but kicked out, and aimed blows in the air.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Off, Jew!” he stammered. “I will sleep as I choose. A +tiller of the land am I; and you—you are a scurvy rascal +and a villain!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>A pail of water sobered him so much that he rose, and +with astonishment and dismay, learned that, having drunk +a whole rouble’s worth, he was in Yankel’s debt for that +amount.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What! a quarter of a litre, rum, one herring, tobacco, and +another quarter besides: can they make up a rouble? +How’s that?” His brain was swimming.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yankel, however, at last convinced him, and they came +to an understanding about the gun which the Jew was to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>supply; although Kuba was firm in refusing to give him +the oats demanded.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My father was not a thief; neither am I.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now go away, Kuba; it is time, and I have still some +prayers to say.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hear the old hypocrite! Asking a man to steal, and +saying his prayers on the top of that!” he muttered, as he +walked homewards, trying to remember things and sift +them clear: for somehow he could not believe he had drunk +a whole rouble’s worth. But he was not yet sober, and the +cold night air made him dizzy; so he reeled and staggered +along, now falling against the hedges, now against the logs +of timber piled up outside the huts. He swore.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May the devil wring your necks for cumbering the road +so, rascals! You must have been tipsy when you did it. +Yes, drunken wretches! and his Reverence’s warnings have +been all for naught.... His Reverence....” Here reflection +came to him; he realized the condition he was in, +and felt overwhelmed with contrition. He stopped short, +looking about him for some hard thing that might be handy. +Then he forgot about that, and clutched at his shaggy mane, +and beat his face with his fists.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You drunken wretch, you plague-stricken swine! I will +drag you before his Reverence, and he will rebuke you in +presence of the whole congregation, and say you are a dog, +and a miserable drunkard; you have drunk half a litre of +vodka—a whole rouble’s worth—and are a beast, worse than +a beast!”—A sudden wave of self-compassion then came +over him; he sat down in the road and burst into tears.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The moon, large and splendid, was floating through the +dark space; like silver nails in the firmament, a few stars +shone, sparsely scattered about; a thin grey tissue of mist +hung over the pond like a veil, and waved its folds above +the village. The world had entered into that unfathomable +quiet of the autumn night, save that the few who were going +home sang as they went, and dogs were heard to bark +now and then.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>Also, upon the road in front of the tavern, Ambrose, still +reeling from one side to the other, quavered forth his song:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Tell, Marysia mine,</div> + <div class='line'>Tell, O best and truest,</div> + <div class='line'>Tell whose ale thou brewest,</div> + <div class='line'>Tell, Marysia mine!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c011'>which he repeated with interminable reiteration, until such +time as the effects of his potations should cease.</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>Autumn was growing ever more and more autumnal.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The pale days passed, dragging themselves over +the empty soundless fields, and died away beyond the +forest, always stiller, always paler, like the Sacred Host in +the glimmer of a taper that is going out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And every dawn the morning came more and more sluggishly, +benumbed, as it were, by the cold of the hoarfrosts, +and the sorrowful stillness and the life ebbing out of the +land. The sun, dim, shorn of its beams, came blossoming +forth from the depths; and crows and daws that had started +up from somewhere in the East flew circling round its disk: +they skimmed over the fields in long low flight, and croaked +with dull mournful voices. Following them, the wind swept +along, bitter and bleak, ruffling the stirred waters, burning +up all that was left of greenery, and tearing away the last +dead leaves from the poplars on the roads: these fell slowly, +like trickling tears—tears of blood, shed by the summer as +it lay dying.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And every dawn, the villages woke up somewhat later, the +cattle went to graze with more slothful steps, the barn-doors +swung open with less stridulous creaking; men’s voices +seemed muffled as they sounded in the deathly void of the +fields, and their very life beat now with fainter pulsations. +From time to time, they appeared outside their cabins or +out in the country, and, suddenly stopping, peered for a +long time into the livid murky distance. Or mighty horned +heads would be sometimes raised from the grass of the yellow +pastures; and as they slowly chewed the cud, their +eyes would likewise go staring far, far away, while at intervals +a hollow lowing would resound through the desolate +waste.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>And every dawn, it grew colder, darker; the smoke floated +lower above the bare orchard trees, and more birds came +swarming into the village to take shelter near the granaries. +Crows perched on the ridges of the roofs or on the bare +boughs, or flitted along close to the ground, croaking +hoarsely—singing, as it were, the dismal song of approaching +winter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Noontide was sunny as a rule: but so silent! The murmuring +of the woods was heard afar as a faint whisper, and +the rippling of the river sounded like sobs of pain. The +stillness of that noontide had something of death in it; and +on the unfrequented ways and in the leafless orchards there +lurked a profound sadness, mingled with a sense of shrinking +from what was to come.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The ploughing was nearly over, and some finished their +work, ending the last furrow when it was already dark, and +looking back at the fields as they went home, wishing and +longing for next spring to arrive soon.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Often, before evening set in, chilly rains would fall; and +these, as time went on, continued even till twilight—that +long autumn twilight when the cabin windows would shine +flaming like golden blossoms, and the pools in the deserted +roads glistened as glass—and even till the cold wet wind +of the night flung its drops against the panes and moaned +among the orchard trees.</p> + +<p class='c004'>One broken-winged stork that had remained perforce, +and was often seen stalking about the meadows, now began +to draw near to Boryna’s cornstacks, and Vitek took delight +in attracting it by giving it food.</p> + +<p class='c004'><i>Dziads</i>,<a id='r12'></a><a href='#f12' class='c002'><sup>[12]</sup></a> too, now passed through the village more and +more frequently; not only those of the usual kind, who went +from house to house with their cavernous wallets and their +lengthy prayers, and at whose approach the house-dogs always +fell a-baying; but also certain others of a very different +sort. These had travelled much and far, to many holy +<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>places; they knew Chenstohova, and Ostrobrama, and Kalvarya +well, and in the long evenings they would willingly +entertain the village folk by tales of what was going on in +the world, and the strange things done in foreign parts. +And there were even some who told of the Holy Land, +and related such marvels about the vast seas they had +crossed, and the adventures which had befallen them, that +the people listened in pious amazement, and more than one +could scarcely believe that such things could be.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ah, it was autumn, late autumn now!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Neither rollicking songs, nor merry shouts, nor even the +chirruping of little birds, could be heard in the village any +more: only the blast howling over the thatched roofs, the +icy rain pouring glass-like films down the rattling panes, +and the quick dull thudding of the flails on the threshing-floors, +which grew daily louder and louder.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was indeed Autumn, the mother of Winter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>One comfort there was. Hitherto the weather had not +been really bad, and the roads had not yet softened into +bogs; so possibly it might hold until the fair, to which, as +to a village fête, all Lipka was presently going.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was to take place on St. Cordula’s day and, it being +the last fair previous to Yule-tide, everybody had made +preparations.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Many days before, the great question, What ought to be +sold? had been debated: whether cattle, or corn, or some +livestock of the smaller kind. It would also be needful, +since winter was coming on, to make purchases; and those +to no small amount. Thence arose not a few bickerings and +tiffs and jars in the families: all knew that no one had much +money to spare, and cash was harder to get every day.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Besides, it was just then that the taxes had to be paid, +and the communal rates too, and various sums to be laid +out, borrowed money to be returned in many cases, and not +infrequently, the servants’ wages were due. So that more +than one owner (even of seventeen acres!) was sometimes +in straits to know what he had better do.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And so, some took a cow out of the byre, cleansed her +<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>dung-plastered sides with straw, gave her plenty of clover +for the night, or a mess of barley boiled with potatoes, and +did all they could to fatten her up a little; while others experimented +with some blind old jade, completely worthless, +endeavouring to make it look at least something like a +horse.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And others in order to have their corn ready in time, +were busily threshing it all day long.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At Boryna’s, too, all were working amain. Aided by +Kuba, the old man threshed out all his wheat, while Yuzka +and Hanka employed every leisure moment in fattening the +sow, or such of the geese as they had selected for sale. And, +as rain was expected at any moment, Antek went time and +again to the wood with Vitek, to get dry boughs and brushwood +for fuel and litter: of this, some went to the cow-house, +and the rest to make a warm outer coating for the hut.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This forced spell of work was kept up till late the last +evening before the fair; and it was not until the wheat, all +in sacks upon the cart, had been wheeled into the barn, and +everything was quite ready for the morrow, that they all +sat down together to supper in Boryna’s cabin.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The fire was leaping merrily up the chimney, and by +its light they ate with leisurely decorum and in silence; +but when the meal was over, and the womenfolk had cleared +away pots and pans, Boryna drew a little closer to the fire +and said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We shall have to start ere day breaks.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Certainly, not a whit later,” Antek replied, and set to +greasing the harness, while Kuba was engaged in whittling a +swipple for his flail; and Vitek, occupied in peeling potatoes +for next morning’s meal, nevertheless found means to play +with Lapa, who lay close by and searched for fleas.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Nothing was heard for some time but the crackling of +the logs, the shrill cry of crickets beside the hearth, the +splashing of water outside the room, and the clinking of +pots and dishes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Kuba, do you intend to remain in my service next year?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He let his knife drop, and gazed so long and steadily into +<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>the fire that Boryna asked him whether he had heard the +question.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Heard it? I have: but I was thinking.—Truly, you have +not treated me ill in any wise.... Only——” Here he +broke off in some confusion.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka! Bring vodka and a bit of something.—Are we +like Jews, to be dry when we do business?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thus he gave his order, and drew a bench closer to the +fire. Yuzka presently brought in a bottle and a loaf and +a string of sausages, and set them on the bench.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Drink, Kuba, drink, and say your say.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thanks, master.—Well, I’d like to stay, but ... but....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Some increase of wages, perhaps?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It were good. For see, my sheepskin coat is all in rags. +So are my boots; and I need a capote besides. If I go +to church as I am, I must stay in the porch. How can I +stand before the altar in such a dress?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes,” Boryna sternly put in, “the other Sunday you did +not care: you pushed and thrust yourself to where the +foremost were standing!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is true.... Yes, but ...” he stammered, greatly +abashed and flushing crimson.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And his Reverence himself teaches us that the elders +ought to be respected.—Now, Kuba, drink to a good understanding +between us, and hearken to what I say. You know +very well that a farm-hand is not a farmer. Everyone has +his place, given to him by our Lord. To you also hath +the Lord Jesus given yours. Keep it therefore, do not push +forward, nor set yourself above other folk, for this were a +grievous sin. His Reverence will tell you the very same +thing. It must be so, else there would be no order in the +world.—Do you follow me?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am not a brute beast, and know what words mean.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, then, see to it that you do not set yourself above +anyone.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But my only desire was to be nearer God’s altar!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“In whatsoever nook you are, God will hear you: fear +<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>nothing. Also, why should you thrust yourself amongst +the foremost, since all here know you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are right, very right. If I were a farmer, I should +bear the canopy and support his Reverence, and sit on a +bench, and sing aloud out of a book. But,” he concluded, +with a sigh, “being only a labourer—though a husbandman’s +son, mind you!—it behoves me to stand in the vestibule, +or outside in the porch, like a dog.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So is it ordained throughout the world, and you will +not change it by taking thought.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Without doubt I shall not.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take another drop, Kuba, and say what increase of +wages you would have.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba took the vodka. Now, as he was already somewhat +flustered, he presently felt as in the tavern, with Michael +(from the organist’s) or any other boon companion at his +side, whom he could talk with freely and joyously, as an +equal. So he undid a button or two of his capote, stretched +out his legs, struck the bench with his fist, and cried out:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Four paper roubles more, with a silver one besides, and +I’ll stay with you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’re drunk or mad, I fancy,” was Boryna’s protest; +but Kuba, now fairly started in pursuit of what he wished +and dreamed for, never heard his master’s words. His imagination +was no longer under control, his mind began to +take wings, his self-assurance to grow great, and he felt +himself as high and mighty as any farmer might feel.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes. Four paper roubles more, and one other as earnest +money, and I’ll stay. If not, then, curse it! I’ll go to the +fair. There I shall find service, were it only as a coachman +at some manor. They know me—know I am honest, and +able to do any farm work, afield or in the house; many a +farmer might learn a good deal of me, how I tend the cattle.—Or +else.... I know how to shoot, and can get birds for +his Reverence, or for Yankel.... Or else....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“See him!” the old man roared; “behold how grandly this +lame one is prancing!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The insult effectually sobered Kuba, and roused him from +<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>his dreamings. He said no more of what he could do; but +held doggedly none the less to what he had said. Boryna +had to give way by half a rouble or one <i>zloty</i> at a time, +and ended by agreeing to give him three roubles more, and +a couple of shirts in lieu of earnest money.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ho! Ho! what a fellow you are!” he said, as he drank +with him to clinch the agreement, though he was angry at +having to spend so much. All the same he thought Kuba +was worth it, and more. A man as good as two for hard +work; scrupulously honest besides, and more heedful of the +beasts he tended than of himself; one, moreover, so well acquainted +with husbandry that he could be relied on both to +do his duty, and to see that the others did theirs.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After settling two or three minor points, Kuba was about +to leave. At the door, however, he turned round, and spoke +in faltering tones:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The agreement is made, then: three roubles and a couple +of shirts. But ... but.... I beseech you, don’t sell the +filly. I saw her into the world, and spread my sheepskin +over her, lest she should die of cold.... I could never +bear to see her ill-used, perhaps by a Jew!... A horse +is so docile, a man is nothing beside it.... Please don’t +sell her!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I never thought of doing such a thing.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Folk talked of it in the tavern, and I heard.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Meddlesome dogs and busybodies! They always know +best what is to be done.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba was so delighted that, had he dared, he would have +embraced his master’s knees. He made the best of his way +to bed, for it was late, and there was the fair on the +morrow.</p> + +<hr class='c012'> + +<p class='c004'>Next day, before the cock had crowed twice, every highway +and by-way towards Tymov was thronged with people +wending their way thither.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There had been a heavy rain ere morning. In the East it +had cleared up a little, but the sky was threatening, with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>many a dun-coloured cloud. Over the low-lying fields crept +fogs, dripping wet and grey as coarse canvas; and the pathways +glistened with many a pool.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They had set out from Lipka at early dawn.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All along the poplar-planted road beyond the church and +as far as the forest stretched a chain of slowly-rolling wagons, +one close after another; and either side of the highway +was variegated by a line of red petticoats and white capotes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The multitude was so great that all the village seemed to +be there.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The poorer husbandmen went on foot; so did the women +and the farm-hands and the lasses. So, too, did some common +labourers and inferior workers, this being the fair at +which service was taken or changed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Some went to buy, and some to sell, and some just to enjoy +the fair.</p> + +<p class='c004'>One man led a cow or a big calf by a rope; one drove +a flock of shorn sheep in front of him; another walked behind +a sow with her little ones, or a lot of white geese, with +their wings tied; another trotted by, riding a sorry nag; +while from under many an apron the red comb of a cock +peered forth.—The wagons and carts, too, were well laden. +Often, from the basketwork and straw within one of them, +a hog’s snout would appear, squealing clamorously, till the +geese gaggled in consternation, and the dogs that ran to +market by their masters’ sides, barked in chorus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But Boryna only left his cabin when the day had fully +risen, and the sky had quite cleared. Hanka and Yuzka +had started before him at the very break of day, with the +sow and the fatted pig; and Antek had taken ten sacks of +wheat and fifty pounds of red clover-seed in the cart. Kuba +alone had remained at home, with Vitek, and old Yagustynka, +hired to cook the dinner and milk the cows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek, who wanted to go to the fair, was blubbering noisily +outside the cow-house.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What is the matter with the fool?” Boryna grunted; and +making the sign of the Cross, he started off on foot, expecting +that someone would give him a lift by the way. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>Which also came to pass; for just beyond the tavern the +organist, who was driving in a britzka with a couple of +lusty horses, caught up with him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, Matthias, are you on foot?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, stretching my legs.—Praised be Jesus Christ!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For ever!” the organist’s wife answered. “Jump up; +there is room for you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Many thanks. I should have walked, but, as the saying +is: ‘They that ride in a cart are ay joyful at heart’”—and +he sat down on the front seat, with his back to the horses.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And so young Yanek is not at school now? How’s +that?” he inquired of a lad who was driving, and sitting in +front with a farm-hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, I’m only just here for the fair!” he sang out in reply. +He was the organist’s son. His father said, tapping a box +which he held out to Boryna: “French snuff: take a pinch.” +They both did so, and both sneezed solemnly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, how goes it with you? Selling anything to-day?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Nothing much. Wheat sent earlier, and a pig, taken by +the girls.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not bad, not bad at all!” the organist’s wife exclaimed. +“Yanek, put this comforter on: it is chilly.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, I am all right,” he answered; but she insisted on +his putting it on.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But,” Boryna pointed out, “think of my expenses; I can +scarce pay my way.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthias, do not complain; you have no reason to. +Thank God that you have enough.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna, not liking to be thus reproved in the presence of +a hired man, leaned forward hastily, and whispered:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is Yanek to remain at school much longer?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Only till Easter.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And after? Is he to stay at home, or become an +official?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My good man, what should he be doing at home? We +have lots of children, and only fifteen acres. And times are +hard—hard as stones!—There are christenings in plenty indeed; +but what do we get from them?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>“On the other hand,” Boryna satirically remarked, “there +is no lack of funerals.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And what do funerals bring us? Nobody dies but poor +people. A farmer’s burial, really worth something to us, +comes only once or twice a year.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And votive masses,” she added, “are ever more seldom, +and people bargain for them like Jews!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That,” Boryna explained, “is on account of present hard +times, and poverty.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Also because men now think less of their salvation, and +of the duty to help poor souls in purgatory!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The organist here added: “And we get less from the +manors as well. Formerly, when on our rounds at harvest-time, +or offering wafers, or at Yule-tide, or with our lists of +parishioners newly made up, we used to go straight to the +manor, where they grudged us neither corn, nor money, nor +flour for pastry. And now, good heavens! all have grown +so stingy that, if one offers us a little sheaf of rye, it must +have been gnawed by mice; and if a bushel of oats, it will +be chaff for the greater part. Had we not a bit of land, we +should have to beg our bread,” he concluded, holding out +his snuff-box to Boryna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“True, true,” the latter replied, though under no delusion. +He well knew the organist had money, some in the bank, +some out at interest, and profitably lent to farm-hands. So +he only smiled to hear his lamentations, and once more +asked about Yanek.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you going to make a Government clerk of him?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of him? My Yanek—a Government official? I have +not denied myself bread for him that the poor boy should +have to finish his classes. No, no; he shall be a priest.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, a priest?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, why not? Shall he lose aught thereby? Whom +does it hurt to become a priest?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No one. No one, certainly,” he answered with deliberation, +looking respectfully over his shoulder at the young +fellow. “It is an honour. And also, as the saying is: ‘A +priest’s kith and kin will never grow thin.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>“They said that Staho, the miller’s son, was to enter the +seminary; but I hear he is now at a college, studying +medicine.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! such an evil-liver, a priest! Why, my servant +Magda is six months with child—and by him!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“By the miller’s man, they say.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No. His mother says so, but it is only to screen him. +Oh, such a profligate!... God forbid!... As a physician, +he’ll do very well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna said: “Yes, yes, a priest’s vocation is by far +the best,” and continued to humour her, tactfully listening +to her gossip, while the organist would many a time lift his +cap, answering “For ever!” to the greetings of those he +passed by. They went at a good trot; Yanek drove splendidly, +threading his way among the wagons and people and +livestock upon the road, till they got to the forest, where +the crush was not so great, and the road wider.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There they came up with Dominikova, who was going +with Yagna and Simon, and a cow tied by the horns to the +cart, from which, hissing like so many adders, the white +necks of some ganders protruded.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They greeted each other, and Boryna went so far, when +the wagons were abreast, as to lean forwards, and say: +“You will be late!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, we’ve time in plenty!” Yagna laughed in reply.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When they had been passed, the organist’s son looked +round at her several times, and asked at last:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is that Dominikova’s Yagna?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The same, yes,” Boryna returned, with his eyes upon +her, a good way behind already.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I was not sure: it is a good couple of years since I last +saw her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, she was then tending kine. She’s very young still; +but she has grown as stout as a clover-fed heifer.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, aye; comely she is; so well-favoured that every +week messengers are sent to her with vodka—and a +proposal.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But she’ll none of them. The old woman thinks,” the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>organist’s wife whispered spitefully, “that a steward may +come for her, and drive all the peasants away.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, she would do, even for the wife of a thirty-five +acres’ farmer.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O Matthias, if you think so much of the lass, send +proposers to her yourself,” she said with a laugh. Thenceforward +Boryna spoke not one word.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You town-bred riff-raff, here become a big personage—who +look under the tail of every peasant’s hen to see if +there are eggs for you—who seek for money in every +peasant’s fist—will you make a mock of me, a husbandman +born! You leave Yagna alone!” So he thought, and +looked straight in front of him, in a very ill humour indeed, +at Dominikova’s cart, bright with the gleams of aprons +thrown over kerchiefs, and now rapidly dropping astern; +for Yanek was flogging the horses vigorously, and their +hoofs made great holes in the mud.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The good woman went on talking, but to no purpose. +Boryna only nodded, or mumbled indistinctly, and stubbornly +refrained from any utterance whatever.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And no sooner had they reached the unspeakable pavement +of the little town, than he got down, with thanks for +the lift.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We shall be returning about nightfall,” she said, and +asked whether he would care to go back with them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Very much obliged to you,” he replied, “but I have +horses of my own. People would jest—say I was applying +for the post of organ-blower or assistant; and I can’t sing +a note or learn how to use an extinguisher!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They went down a by-street, and he walked with swift +steps up a main one, till he got to the market-place. It +was a first-class fair, and the streets were already pretty +well crowded. All the thoroughfares, squares, lanes and +court-yards were full of people and vehicles and all sorts +of country produce, like a flood into which human rivers +were constantly flowing, with dense waves rolling through +the narrow alleys and seeming about to bring the houses +down, until it poured into the great square near the monastery. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>On the way townwards, there had been relatively +little mud; but here, trodden and trampled by thousands +of feet, it was ankle-deep, splashing in every direction from +under the wheels of the carts.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Every instant, the din grew louder. Nothing could be +heard distinctly save a cow bellowing now and then, a +barrel-organ accompanying the merry-go-round, the obstreperous +wailing of <i>Dziads</i>, or the ear-splitting whistles +of basket-makers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Truly, it was a very big fair, so crowded that one could +scarce make one’s way forwards; and by the time that +Boryna had reached the main square, he had to push and +elbow a passage by main force amongst the stalls.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And the things that were there! They could not be told +or even conceived. How, then, is it possible to describe +them?</p> + +<p class='c004'>And, first, those lofty canvas booths, which stood in front +of the convent in two rows, all of them devoted to articles +for women’s use: pieces of linen cloth, and kerchiefs, +suspended from poles, and all of them as scarlet as scarlet +poppies, making the eyes ache; and then, close by, another +booth hung with the same wares, but all of the purest +yellow; and another, again, of the deep crimson of the +beetroot.... But who could remember all these things?</p> + +<p class='c004'>Lasses and women stood there in such serried crowds +that there was not room, as they say, to thrust a stick in +amongst them—some bargaining and choosing; and some +only looking on, gloating over those things of beauty!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Farther, there were stalls that positively blazed with +beads, looking-glasses, tinsel ornaments, and ribbons and +flowers—green and golden and many-coloured—and caps +too ... and the Lord knows what besides!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Elsewhere, the sellers of holy images had set them forth +in glazed and gilded frames, so gloriously brilliant that +(although they only stood ranged along the walls, or even +lay along the ground) more than one peasant would take +his hat off and make the sign of the Holy Cross.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna bought Yuzka the kerchief he had promised +<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>her in spring, and withdrew, pushing his way onwards to +the swine-market beyond the monastery. He made but +slow progress, owing both to the terrible crush and to the +many interesting objects which he saw.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The capmakers, for instance, had put up wide ladders +in front of their shops, and embellished these with caps +from top to bottom.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The bootmakers had formed a real lane with trestles and +horses, from which endless rows of boots dangled, suspended +by the lugs: some of the common sort—tawny and only +requiring to be greased lest the water should get in; some, +lustrous with blacking like varnish; some, women’s boots, +high-heeled, red-laced, and beautifully polished.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Farther were the saddlers’ stalls, superb with horse-collars +and harnesses hanging in festoon from many a peg.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then came the booths of the rope-makers, of them that +sold nets, and of the itinerant sieve-venders; of those whose +trade was to go from fair to fair with groats for sale; and +of the wheelwrights and of the tanners.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Elsewhere, tailors and furriers had set forth their respective +goods, the latter pungent in the nostrils with the +spices used to preserve them; and they, since winter was +coming on, had customers not a few.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After these came rows of tables sheltered under canvas +roofs, displaying enormous coils of russet-hued sausages, +as thick as a ship’s mooring-rope; and piles of yellow fat +and grease, brown flitches of smoked bacon, whole sides +of fat salt pork, and hams by scores, rose in multitudinous +tiers: while at other stalls, entire carcasses of hogs were +hooked up, wide-opened, gaping, and so dripping with +blood that the dogs gathered round, and had to be driven +away.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Close by the butchers were their brethren of the baking-oven; +and on thick layers of straw, on wagons, upon tables +and in baskets, and wheresoever they could be placed, lay +monstrous piles of loaves, each as large as a small cart-wheel. +Cakes, too, were there, glazed over with yellow +egg-yolks; and little rolls, and great ones as well.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>Nor were stalls for playthings wanting. Some were made +of gingerbread, in the shape of many a kind of beast, of +soldiers, and hearts—and strange forms, whose meaning no +one could make out. At other stalls you could have seen +almanacs, prayer-books, tales about robbers and fierce +<i>Magielons</i>;<a id='r13'></a><a href='#f13' class='c002'><sup>[13]</sup></a> at others, cheap whistles, mouth-organs, +singing-birds of baked clay, and similar musical instruments +were to be bought, on which those “Jew rascals” who sold +them made such a row as was hardly to be borne; for the +birds chirped, the trumpets blew, the whistles squeaked with +long-drawn shrillness, and the little kettledrums at times +joined in, beating a tattoo: and the uproar was enough to +split any man’s head.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But in the centre of the market-place, under the trees, +coopers, tinmen and earthenware dealers had made up a +group apart. There were so many pots, pans, pipkins and +porringers that it was no easy thing to get past. Beyond +these were stationed the joiners, with a show of painted +bedsteads and chests, wardrobes, and tiers of shelves, and +tables.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now, in every place—upon the carts, along the walls, in +the gutters, and, in short, wherever they found room—saleswomen +were sitting: with onions in strings, or in +baskets; with cloth fabrics and petticoats of their own making; +with eggs, cheeses, mushrooms, pats of butter of oblong +shape and wrapped in a linen cloth. Some had potatoes +to sell, some a couple of geese, or a fowl already +plucked and drawn; others, flax fibres finely combed out, or +skeins of spun flaxen thread. Each of them sat by her +wares and chatted pleasantly with her neighbour, as folk +are wont to do at the fair. And when a purchaser appeared, +they dealt with him quietly, gravely, leisurely, as decent +peasant people: not like those Jews, who quarrel and +scream and push one another, as though they were out of +their minds.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Amid carts and booths, smoke was seen here and there +<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>curling up from sheet-iron stoves. Here they sold hot tea. +At others, there were eatables: fried sausages, cabbage, +<i>barszcz</i><a id='r14'></a><a href='#f14' class='c002'><sup>[14]</sup></a> and boiled potatoes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Everywhere, <i>Dziads</i> were about in vast swarms: the +blind, the halt, the dumb; cripples with never an arm, +cripples with never a leg: just as at a local village fête. +They played hymn tunes on tiny kits they held, or sang +godly songs, clinking money in their wooden bowls. From +the house-walls, from among the wagons, from the mud-deluged +street, they all came to beg timidly, and implore a +trifle in money or in kind.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On all this did Boryna gaze, not infrequently with admiration, +as he exchanged a few words with acquaintances +whom he met. At last he got to the swine-market, which +was beyond the monastery: a very large space of sandy +ground, with a few houses sprinkled here and there. Close +to the monastery garden wall, and shaded by many a huge +oak-tree that stretched out its branches over the wall, still +covered with withered leaves, were grouped a good many +people and carts, together with a large number of swine +brought to the fair for sale.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He soon saw Hanka and Yuzka, who stood at the outside +of the group.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you sold, hey?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, the butchers have been here already to bargain for +the sow; but they offer too little.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are swine dear?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Dear? Not at all. So many have come, and the buyers +are too few.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Anybody from Lipka?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The Klembas have brought some small pigs; and Simon, +Dominikova’s son, has one too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, be as quick as you can, that you may enjoy the +fair.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We have enough of waiting already.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How much will they give for the sow?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>“Thirty paper roubles. They say she is not well fed; +big bones, but no fat on them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s the biggest of lies! She has four fingers’ thickness +of fat!” he cried, feeling the sow’s back and sides. +“The young pig is not fat on the sides, but then its hams +are well clad,” he added, driving it out of the wet sand +where it was wallowing and half buried.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sell at thirty-five. I shall just see Antek, and come back +to you directly.—Haven’t you a mind to eat?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Our bread is eaten already.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll buy you a bit of sausage besides. Only get a good +price for the pigs.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father, won’t you think of buying me the kerchief +you promised last spring?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna put his hand to his bosom, but stopped, as though +struck with some idea, took out his hand again, and waved +it, saying merely:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You shall have it, Yuzka.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Instantly he moved off, for he had descried Yagna’s face +amongst the wagons; but before he got to her, she had +disappeared, and was nowhere to be seen. So he went in +search of Antek: no easy task, for the street from the +swine-market to the great square was so thronged with +carts, one after another and several abreast, that one could +drive past only with the greatest care and difficulty.</p> + +<p class='c004'>However, he happened upon him at once, sitting on the +sacks of wheat, and flicking with his whip at the Jews’ +poultry, which came running about near the bags out of +which the horses were eating, while he made surly replies +to the bargainers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I said seven, and seven it shall be.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I give six and a half: the wheat is damaged.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You scurvy dog! let me but fetch a blow at your ugly +face, and it will be damaged enough: but my wheat is as +good as good can be.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Perhaps; but it’s damp.... I’ll take it by measure, and +at six roubles five <i>zloty</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No. By weight, and at seven.—I have said.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>“But, my good farmer, why so angry? Buying or not +buying, one may always try to bargain.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then bargain away, if it amuses you.” And he paid no +more heed to the Jews, who came opening the sacks one after +another, to examine the wheat.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Antek, I am just going to the scrivener’s. I shall be +back in the twinkling of an eye.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What? With your complaint against the manor-folk?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Think you I’ll not resent the wrong done me?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Just get hold of the keeper, fasten him to a pine-trunk, +and cudgel him till his ribs clatter: then you’ll have +justice done!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, and serve him right too; but the manor-folk must +come in for their share,” he answered in a hard voice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hand me over a <i>zloty</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What for?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To drink a drop and eat a bit.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Always looking into your father’s purse! Have you no +money of your own?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek, furious, turned his back on his father, whistling +derisively; and the old man, though very unwillingly, +pulled out a <i>zloty</i> and gave it to him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; coin your blood to money, and give it away to +all!” he thought, as he pushed his way towards a large +tavern at the corner, where many guests had come to eat. +The scrivener lived in a tiny room in the court-yard. Clad +only in his shirt, unwashed, unkempt, but with a cigar in his +mouth, he was then sitting at a table near the window.—On +a mattress in the corner a woman lay, with a greatcoat +over her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sit down, my good man!” He tossed some garments on +to the floor off a chair which he offered to Boryna, who +presently explained the whole business to him in detail.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As sure as a Pater ends with Amen, you’ll get a verdict +in your favour! What! A cow dead, and the boy +frightened into an illness! We are bound to win!” He +rubbed his hands, and looked about the table for some +paper.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>“But the boy is quite well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All the same, he might have fallen ill: the keeper gave +him a beating.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not him, but a neighbour’s cowherd.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A pity; that would have been still better. But we shall +word it so that it may seem both that the cow died, and +that the boy had an illness. Let the manor-folk pay!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Surely. I want nothing but justice.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll draw up your complaint instantly.—Franka, you +sluggard!” he cried, kicking the woman on the mattress so +hard that she lifted up her tousled head. “Fetch us vodka +and something to eat!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have not one kopek, Gutek; and they’ll give us nothing +on trust, you know,” she grumbled, and, rising from her +disorderly couch, yawned and stretched herself. She was a +big woman, with a drunkard’s face, bruised and bloated, +but the thin reedy voice of a baby.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The scrivener set to work, with noisy pen scratching the +paper. He puffed at his cigar, blowing the smoke into +Boryna’s face, as the latter was looking on. Now and then +he paused to rub his freckled hands and turn his haggard +pimply face towards Franka. He wore a great black +moustache; his front teeth were broken, his lips livid.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The complaint was soon made out. It cost a rouble, and +another for the stamp; and he agreed to present it at the +court for three more.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna willingly allowed the expenses incurred, feeling +sure that the manor would have to pay them, with heavy +damages besides.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There must be justice in the world!” he cried, on +departing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If we don’t win in the Communal Court, we shall try +the Assembly; if not there, why then, the District Court, +and then the Judgment Chamber: I won’t give in.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why should I abandon what is mine?” he said, with +fierce obstinacy. “And to whom? To those manor-folk, +owners of forests and of fields without end? No!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Such thoughts were filling his mind, as he went forth into +<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>the market-place: but just as he passed the capmakers’ +stalls, he met with Yagna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There she stood, with one dark-blue cap on her head, +cheapening another.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“See here, Matthias! this ‘yellow one’<a id='r15'></a><a href='#f15' class='c002'><sup>[15]</sup></a> would have me +believe this is a good cap: but no doubt he is lying.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A very nice cap. Is’t for Andrew?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is: Simon’s is already bought.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will it not be too small for him?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“His head is just the size of mine.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What a well-favoured stable-boy you would make!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! shouldn’t I?” she exclaimed, with a jaunty air, and +cocking her cap on one side.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’d take you to my service directly!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Only my terms might prove much too high.” She +laughed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For some, perhaps; not for me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I’d do no work in the fields.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, I would do the work for you, Yagna!” he whispered, +and the look he darted at her was so passionate that she +shrank back in confusion, and paid for the cap without +bargaining.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you sold your cow?” he asked her, after a time, +when he had become more master of himself, and overcome +the sensation which had so suddenly gone to his head, like +strong vodka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, they bought her for the priest in Yerzov. Mother +has gone with the organist, who wants to engage a farm-labourer.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well then, let’s just go and take a drop of sweetened +vodka together.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s that you say?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are cold, Yagna; it will warm you somewhat.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go with you for a drink?... Where could I go?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then, Yagna, I’ll bring some, and we’ll drink it here +together.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>“God reward your kindness, but I must look for Mother.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna, I’ll help you to find her,” he whispered very low, +and going foremost, elbowed a way for her so powerfully +that she was easily able to get through the crowd. But +when they stood before the booths of linen goods, the girl +walked more slowly, and presently stopped, her eyes beaming +with joy at the various objects before her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, what splendid things! Lord, dear Lord!” she murmured, +stopping in front of the ribbons which, hanging +above her, waved in the air, like a mobile and flaming +rainbow.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Choose the one you like best, Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, that yellow one embroidered with flowers must +cost a rouble, or perhaps even ten <i>zloty</i>!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let not that trouble you, but take it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna, however—regretfully indeed and with a great +effort—let the ribbon go, and passed on to the next booth: +Boryna remaining a little behind for a few instants.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now her gaze again fell on kerchiefs, and stuffs for bodices, +and jackets.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O Lord, O Lord! what beautiful things!” she murmured +low, rapt with the glamour of it all; and more than once +she would plunge her quivering hands into those folds of +green or red satin, till her eyes grew dim and her heart +went pit-a-pat with delight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And what head-dresses those kerchiefs made! Scarlet +silk, embroidered all round with green flowers; or all of +a golden hue; or a deep blue, like the sky after rain! And +those—the finest of them all—of changeful shimmering +colours, pure as water shining in the evening sunlight, and +no heavier than floating gossamer!... No, she could not +help it: she must try that kerchief on her head, and see +herself in the looking-glass the Jewess of the booth was +holding out to her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yes, it suited her to perfection; it was like a glorious +aureole over her light flaxen tresses, and made the deep azure +of her eyes shine so intensely with the joy of it that they +glowed violet amid the splendour of her face. And people +<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>turned to gaze at her, so handsome she appeared, surrounded +with so bright an emanation of youth and health!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is not this the daughter of some Squire, disguising +herself?” they whispered among themselves.</p> + +<p class='c004'>For a long time she contemplated the kerchief, and then, +with a deep sigh, took it off, and set to bargaining: not +meaning to buy it—this was impossible—but only for the +pleasure of enjoying its beauty a little longer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently, however, her ardour cooled. The Jewess had +put the price at five roubles!—Even Boryna at once +dissuaded her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Again they came to a stop before the stalls of beads. +How many strings there were! And how they looked! As +if the whole stall were oversprinkled with precious gems: +so brilliant, so resplendent! Hard, indeed, it was to take +one’s eyes away from them—from those amber globules of +pellucid gold, looking for all the world as if made of sweet-scented +resin; and the coral drops, like threaded beads of +blood; and the white pearls, as big as hazel-nuts; and those +other drops of silver and of gold!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna tried on more than one, and made her choice of +the most beautiful. At last she caught sight of one very +lovely string of coral beads, passed it four times round her +neck, and, turning to the old man, said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Does it suit me? Tell me true.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Splendidly, Yagna!—But coral beads are no strange +thing to me. In a chest at my home there lies a necklace +of eight rows. ’Twas my wife’s. Every bead is as big as +the biggest pea.” This he said to her with studied +indifference.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And what’s that to me, if it is not mine?” She flung +the beads back and hastened away, moody and repining.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna, let’s sit down awhile.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I must go to mother.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No fear of her leaving you behind.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They sat down together on the shaft of a wagon.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It’s a big fair,” remarked Boryna, looking round the +market-place.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>“It’s not small,” she returned, casting a sorrowful glance +at the stalls they had left behind them, and heaving a deep +sigh. A pause ensued; then, trying to shake off her sadness, +she spoke:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, well it is for anyone who is a Squire! Once I saw +the daughter of the Squire of Vola, with other ladies, buying, +as they did at every fair, such quantities of things that +they were carried by a manservant!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Who goes oft to the fair shall lose all he has there.’” +Boryna remarked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The proverb is not for them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not so long as they can borrow from Jews,” he answered, +with such bitterness that Yagna stared at him, knowing +not what to reply. Looking away from her, he asked, in a +low voice:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They have been to you with a proposal from Michael, +Voytek’s son, have they not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They went away as they came. Such a dolt, to send a +proposal to me!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna then rose hurriedly, taking out of his bosom a +kerchief, and something else wrapped up in paper.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Keep this, Yagna; I must go to Antek.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Her eyes sparkled at the name. “Is he at the fair?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; down that lane, selling the corn.—Take this, +Yagna, it is for you,” he added, seeing her gaze at the kerchief +with bewildered eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do you give it me? Me—really? Oh, how pretty it +is!” She unwrapped the paper. There lay the very same +ribbon that had pleased her so vastly just before. “Can +you be in earnest?” she exclaimed. “Why do you give me all +this? It is very costly, and the kerchief is of pure silk.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take it, Yagna, take it, it is all bought for you. And +when some peasant shall come to drink to you, do not +drink back to him. Why hurry?—Now, I must go.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are these things my own? Say you true?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And wherefore should I lie to you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I can scarce believe it,” she said, unwrapping the kerchief, +and then the ribbon again.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>“God be with you, Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How I thank you, Matthias!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He left her. Yagna once more unwrapped the things, +and gloated over them. Then she wrapped them up both +together, with a mind to run after him and give them +back: for how could she accept such gifts from a stranger? +But he was no longer in sight. So she walked along slowly, +to seek her mother, secretly and fingering with intense +pleasure the parcel hidden in her bosom. She was full of +joy; her cheeks glowed red, and her white teeth flashed +as she smiled.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna! Pray give some aid to a poor creature. Your +people are good, true Christians! I’ll say a Hail Mary +for your departed.... O Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna, thus recalled to herself, looked to see who it was +that spoke, and saw Agatha, who was sitting close to the +monastery wall, upon a bundle of straw: for the mud was +there more than ankle-deep.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Coming to a standstill, she fumbled in her dress for +some coppers; and Agatha, overjoyed to have met someone +of her village, began to ask her what was going on at +Lipka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are all the potatoes in?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To the very last.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Anything new at the Klembas’?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, they have sent you away to beg ... and you +still care about them?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sent me away? That they did not; I went by myself, +for it was needful. And I care about them, because they are +my kinsfolk.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And what are you doing now?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Going from church to church, from hamlet to hamlet, +from fair to fair; and, as guerdon for my prayers, the good +people give me, here a corner to sleep in, there a morsel to +feed me, and at times a copper or two. The people are +good; they will not let a poor creature starve, not they!” +She broke off, and asked, with some hesitation: “Do you +know if all the Klembas are in good health?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>“They are; and how are you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, my health is nothing to boast of. Always a pain +in my chest; and when I take cold, I spit hot blood. I +shall not last long, no!—If I can but hold out till spring, +I will go back to the village to die among my own people. I +ask naught else of our Lord.... Naught else.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Say a prayer for Father’s soul?” Yagna whispered, slipping +some coins into her hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That will be for all the holy souls in purgatory; for as it +is, I always pray for all those I know, living and dead.—But +... Yagna!... Have they sent no one to you with +vodka?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And you would drink back to none?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To none,” she replied briefly. “God be with you, and +come next spring to see us.” And she went to rejoin her +mother, whom she perceived at some distance with the +organist.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna was returning to Antek, but slowly, both on +account of the crowds, and because the thought of Yagna +was haunting him. Before he saw his son, however, the +blacksmith met him. They greeted one another, and +walked on side by side without speaking. At last:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you going to settle with me, or not?” the smith +began, in no friendly voice. Boryna was up in arms at +once.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Settle what? Lipka was the place to speak with me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“These three years I have been waiting. People advise +me to bring an action at law ... but....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do so. I’ll introduce you to a scrivener; yes, and pay +him a rouble to draw up a complaint for you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“... But I think,” the smith went on, with crafty moderation, +“it were best to have a friendly understanding.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Right. ‘By a neighbourly course get what’s not got by +force!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You say wisely.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You will get it neither in one way nor in the other.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>“I have always told my wife that you, Father, loved +justice.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Everyone wants justice ... on his side. I am indifferent, +for I owe nothing.” At those stern words, the blacksmith +saw he would get nothing by his former tactics, so he +changed them. As if there had been no dispute, he very +quietly uttered the request:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will you stand me a drink? I should like one.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Certainly, dearest son-in-law: yes, even should you ask +for a litre.” The tones were rather sneering; but they entered +the corner tavern together. Here they found Ambrose, +not drinking, but seated in a corner, sulky and sad.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I feel my bones ache; we shall have nasty weather,” +Ambrose predicted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They drank once and again, but saying not a word, each +angry with the other.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You take your vodka as they do at a funeral,” Ambrose +said; he felt sore at not being invited, for he had scarcely +taken anything that morning.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How can we talk? Father-in-law is selling so much to-day +that he must think to whom he had best lend his cash +out at interest.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthias, Matthias!” cried Ambrose; “I say to you that +our Lord....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthias I am—for some, not for you, you saucy fellow!—Look +at him! ‘Fain would the swine say to the +swineherd, Brother!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The smith had already taken a couple of stiff drams, and +felt inclined to argue. He lowered his tone, to say:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father-in-law, tell me once for all: will you, or will +you not, give what I ask?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have heard my answer. I cannot take my land to +the grave with me; but, while I am living, not one acre +will I give up. I will not be fed at your expense, and +mean to enjoy a year or two in this world still.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then pay me off!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have spoken: have you heard?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>“He is looking out,” Ambrose whispered, “for a third +wife. What are his children to him?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s likely, indeed!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Marry I shall, if I choose,” put in Boryna. “Do you +object?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Object? No; but....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If I choose, I shall send a proposal—yes, and no later +than to-morrow!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do so. What have I against it? Only let me have Red-and-White’s +calf, and I’ll even help you all I can. You, +a reasonable man, must know what is best for you. I have +said so many a time to my wife: you want a woman in the +house to keep it in order.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Michael! You said that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May I die unshriven if I did not! Yes, I did say so. +I, who advise the whole village, each man as he requires, +should I not know what is good for you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You rogue, you are lying like a gipsy!—But come to-morrow, +and you shall have the calf.... What I am asked +for, I may give; but claim it as a right, and you’ll get only +a broken cudgel—or worse.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They continued their potations, the smith now treating +Boryna, and inviting Ambrose to join them. This he did +very willingly, and told many a merry tale and jest, so +that they presently roared with laughter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The two separated on good terms. But neither trusted +the other a jot.—Each was transparent to each as a pane +of glass, each as easy to know as a horse with a star on the +forehead.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose remained, expecting gossips and acquaintances +willing to offer him the least little drop. For “a hungry dog +will try even to catch a fly.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The fair was drawing to its close.</p> + +<p class='c004'>For a moment the sun had shone out at noon, flashing +on the world like the glint of a brandished mirror; then it +plunged anew behind the clouds. Before evening had come, +everything was in profound gloom; heavy masses of vapour +rolled down, almost touching the house-roofs, and a fine +<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>rain drizzled as though sifted through a sieve.... The +folk therefore hastened to drive away, anxious to get home +before nightfall and a heavy downpour.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Twilight fell, swift, louring, and dank: the town was once +more empty and silent.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Only along a wall here and there, some <i>Dziads</i> were +moaning, and the voices of revelling and quarrelling were +loud in the taverns.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Evening was well advanced when Boryna drove away +with his people. They had sold all they brought, purchased +various articles, and enjoyed the fair to the full. Antek +flogged the horses with all his might, and the cart hurtled +athwart the depths of the mud; for he felt cold, and they +had all drunk plentifully. The old man, stingy though he +was, and ready to make a fuss for a <i>grosz</i><a id='r16'></a><a href='#f16' class='c002'><sup>[16]</sup></a> had that day +treated them so well with things to eat and drink, and +friendly words, that they were all amazed at him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When they reached the forest, it was black night—so +dark that nothing could be seen. The rain was falling, +ever in larger drops. Along the road a clatter of wagon-wheels, +the brawling howl of a drunken song, or the sucking +steps of someone plodding in the mire, were to be heard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But, in the middle of the poplar-road, whose trees murmured +and muttered as though shivering with cold, Ambrose, +now quite drunk, staggered along from one side to +the other, now stumbling against a tree, now falling into +the mud; but he would quickly rise and go on, singing, as +was his wont, with noisy vociferation.</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>The rain had now begun to come down in earnest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ever since the fair, all things had been drowned in +a grey turbid shimmer, through which only the dim +outlines of the forest or the hamlet loomed, embroidered, as +it were, on a ground of wet canvas.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The autumn downpours swooped down, icily cold, piercingly +sharp, and never-ending.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The rain, like scourges of ashen-grey hue, unceasingly +beat upon the earth, soaking every tree to its very centre, +and making every blade of grass quiver, as in dire pain.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From underneath those thick clouds and that ghastly grey +rain there would appear, now and again, strips of fields, +blackened, flat, and sodden; or there would gleam forth +streaks of foam-flecked water, flowing down the furrows; or +the trees along the pathways would stand forth, dark and +stark, as their dripping branches, wet to the inmost pith, +shaking off the last rags of leaves, seemed struggling desperately, +like hounds straining at a leash.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The deserted roads were now transformed into interminable +quagmires of filth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The short, sad, sunless days crawled by; bleak and dull, +with ceaseless sounds of monotonous plashing, fell the +nights.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Mute were the fields, dumb the hamlets, silent the woods. +The houses dusky and colourless, seemed melting into and +making one with the earth, the fences, and the stripped +orchards, tossing their boughs with feeble moans.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A livid whirling downpour had covered the land, taken all +colour out of it, quenched its tints, and plunged the world +into twilight. All seemed confused, and as in a dream. A +sadness rose up from the mouldering fields, from the palsy-stricken +<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>woods, from the dead wilderness; thence it floated +like a heavy cloud, lingering about the melancholy crossways, +under the crucifixes which stretched forth their mournful +arms and on the waste roads, where the trees would +suddenly quake as with dread, and sob as if in anguish; it +looked with vacant stare into each deserted nest, and on +each fallen cabin; it crept about the burial-places around +the graves of the forgotten dead, and the decaying crosses; +it spread over all the country.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And the drizzle was never-ceasing: but when the heavy +rain swooped down, it wrapped all Lipka in its folds, so that +the dark thatches, the dank stones of the enclosures, the +dingy tangles of smoke which twirled above the chimneys +and wandered over the orchards, were visible only at rare +intervals.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The village was noiseless, except for some barns, where +men were threshing. But these were few: the people were +all out in the cabbage plantations. The miry roads lay +waste; and waste, too, were the cabin-surroundings. If now +and then anyone appeared, a ghost in the fog, he vanished at +once, and only the sound of his wooden clogs was audible, +as he trudged through the mud. Or from time to time a +cart laden with cabbages would roll slowly away from the +peat bogs, and scatter the geese wading about to snap up such +leaves as it let fall.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The pond struggled within the narrow shores which confined +it. It was continually rising; and ere it flooded the +lower parts of the road on Boryna’s side, it came up to the +enclosures, and splashed and foamed before the very +cabin-walls.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But the whole village was out, busy cutting the cabbages, +and conveying them home. They were housed everywhere, +on threshing-floors, in passages, in dwelling-rooms, and in +some cases, even under the eaves—bluish-green cabbage-heads +were to be seen by hundreds.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They made haste, for it was continually raining, and the +ways were all fast becoming sloughs of mire, and impassable.</p> + +<p class='c004'>That day, they were cutting Dominikova’s plantation.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>Yagna, along with Simon, had been there since morning, +for Andrew had stayed at home to mend the roof.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Evening was at hand, and the old housewife again and +again came out, looking towards the mill, and listening for +the sound of their coming.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But the work was still going on busily in the low-lying +plantation beyond the mill. Over the meadows stretched a +dense fog; only in places, wide ditches gleamed, full of grey +turbid water; and long bands on the higher ground where the +cabbages grew, here of a pallid green, there of a rusty red. +About these flitted dimly the crimson petticoats of women, +piling up heaps of newly cut cabbages.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the misty distance, close to the river that ran frothing +among thickets of brushwood, there rose many a heap of +dull brown peat. Here the carts were stationed; they could +come no nearer, because of the quaggy nature of the soil, +and every sheetful of cabbages had to be taken to them +as a bundle carried on the back.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In some fields cutting was over already, and the people +were going home; from patch to patch, ever louder and +louder, their voices sounded through the fog.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna had only just got through with the work. She +was tired out, very sharp-set, and completely drenched to +boot. Even her clogs were streaming with wet, for they +sank more than ankle-deep into the dun-coloured peaty soil, +and she often had to take them off and pour the water out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Simon! be quick now! I can feel my limbs no more!” +she called out wearily; but, seeing that the young man was +unable to lift his burden, she impatiently seized the great +bundle, raised it on to her back, and carried it off to the +wagon.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A big fellow like you—yet with the loins of a woman +after childbed!” She spoke scornfully, as she poured the +cabbages out into the straw at the bottom of the cart.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Simon, much abashed, muttered, growled, scratched his +head, and put the horse to.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hurry now, Simon!” she cried, swiftly bearing one huge +bundle after another to the cart.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>But night fell, the shades grew blacker, the rain fell +heavier, pouring upon the pulpy ground and into the ditches +with a sound as of dropping corn.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka! have you done for to-day?” she cried to +Boryna’s daughter, who had been cutting along with Hanka +and Kuba.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, we have. Time to go home: the weather is frightful, +and I am wet through. Are you going too?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye. It would soon be so dark that we could not find +our way. The rest must stand over till to-morrow.—Oh, +your cabbages are splendid!” she exclaimed, leaning over +towards them, and getting a glimpse of the heaps that +loomed through the mist.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yours are very good too, and your turnips far larger +than ours.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, they were planted from a new kind of seed, brought +from Warsaw by his Reverence.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna!”—it was Yuzka’s voice, calling again to her +out of the fog—“do you know, Valek, Joseph’s son, is sending +people to-morrow to propose to Mary Pociotek?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, that little girl? Is she not too young? Only +last year she was herding kine, I think.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, she is old enough. Besides, she has so many acres +that the lads are in haste to marry her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You, too, Yuzka, they will be in haste to marry by +and by.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Unless your father takes another wife,” shouted +Yagustynka from the third field.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What do you mean?” said Hanka, in a tone of alarm. +“He buried her mother only last spring.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What does that matter to a man? Every one is even as +a swine; however full, always ready to thrust his snout +into a fresh trough. Ho, ho! one is not quite cold, nay, +not yet dead, and the goodman is after another.—They are +dogs, all of them. What about Sikora? He took a second +wife only three weeks after burying his first.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“True: but then he was left with five little ones.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As you say. But only a fool can believe he married for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>their sake. For his own!—He was fain to share his blanket +with someone.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But,” put in Yuzka, with great energy, “that we would +not let Father do. Never!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Silly baby that you are! The land is your father’s own; +and so is his will.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yet his children too ought to be considered; they have +their rights,” Hanka rejoined.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Better to leap into the deep than cumber another man’s +wagon,” Yagustynka muttered.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna, who had taken no part in this talk, smiled to herself +as she carried the cabbages. She was reminded of what +had happened at the fair.</p> + +<p class='c004'>As soon as the wagon was full, Simon made for the road.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May God be with you!” Yagna then cried to her +neighbours.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And with you! We are coming directly.... Yagna, +you’ll come to us to pluck off the leaves, won’t you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Tell me when, and I’ll be there.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The boys have arranged for music at the Klembas’ next +Sunday: do you know?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I know, Yuzka, I know.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If you meet Antek,” Hanka asked, “pray tell him to +hurry. We are waiting.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All right.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She ran fast to catch the cart, for Simon had started, +and could be heard swearing at the horse. The cart had +stuck in the mire of the soft peaty ground, and was over +the axles in mud; so they both had to work and help the +horse past the worst sloughs.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Neither spoke to the other. Simon led the horse, taking +care not to let the cart upset, for the way was everywhere +full of deep holes. Yagna put her shoulder to the cart +behind, considering all the while how she should dress when +she went for the leaf-plucking to the Borynas.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was so dark that the horse was all but invisible. The +rain had abated a little, but the fog hung heavy and damp, +and the wind blew and whistled above them, lashing the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>trees on the embankment which they were now going up.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was a hard ascent, the ground being both steep and +slippery.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The cart is too full for one horse!” exclaimed a voice on +the embankment.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is that you, Antek?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Surely.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then be quick; Hanka is expecting you.—But give us +a helping hand now.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Wait awhile: I must get down first.—It is so dark that +you can’t see anything.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were up the embankment in no time, for the helping +hand had pushed so powerfully that the horse scrambled +up at once, and only came to a halt at the top.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thanks most heartily,” she said; “but, good God! you +<i>are</i> strong!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And she stretched out her hand to shake his.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were mute. The cart went on before them, while +they walked on, side by side, unable to find words, and +both of them strangely agitated.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you going back?” she asked in a low whisper.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall only go with you as far as the mill, Yagna; the +water has made a nasty hole there.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Very dark, isn’t it?” she said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are you afraid, Yagna?” he murmured, drawing closer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why should I be?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were mute again, walking on shoulder to shoulder, +side touching side.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How bright your eyes shine!... Like a wolf’s.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will you come to the Klembas’ on Sunday for the +music?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will Mother allow me?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do come, Yagna, do come!” he entreated her, in a +strangled husky voice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is it your wish?” she asked him softly, looking into his +eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, Lord! ’twas I ordered the fiddler from Vola, only +for you; and only for you did I beg Klemba to let us have +<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>his cabin.” He spoke in a low tone; his face was so close +to hers, and his breath came so quick, that she drew back a +little, quivering all over with emotion.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go now—they are waiting for you—someone may see +us.—Go!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Will you come?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I will—I will,” she repeated, turning to look at him as +he went away: but the fog had swallowed him up, and she +only heard his feet, as they squashed away through the +thick slush.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then an irrepressible shiver seized her; and yet it was +a fiery blast that went through her heart and brain. She +knew not what it was that had come upon her: her eyes +were full of flames; her breath failed her; she could not +still the passionate throbbing of her heart. Instinctively +she stretched forth her arms as for an embrace: then +stiffened herself, taken with so wild a fit of sudden shuddering +that she could have cried out aloud. But she reached the +wagon and, catching hold, gave it a forward push with great +though needless violence. The cart creaked and lurched +over, so that several cabbages fell out into the mud. But +still she saw before her that face, and ah! those eyes, so +bright, so full of ardent craving!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He is not a man, he’s a whirlwind,” she mused blankly. +“Can there be such another in the whole world?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She came back to her senses with the noise of the mill +they were passing, and with the roar of the water pouring +over the wheel and under the sluices; for those, owing to +the high level of the water, had been thrown open; with a +noisy rush the stream rolled down, breaking up into volumes +of yeast-like foam that formed long white streaks on +the broad expanse of the river.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At the miller’s house, just by the roadside, a lamp had +been lit and placed on a table, whence it could be seen +through the curtained windows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They really have a lamp, just as at his Reverence’s or +at some manor-house!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For are they not rich folk?” said Simon. “They have +<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>more land than Boryna himself; they put their money out +at interest; and how they cheat us when they grind our +wheat!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They live like big landowners.... It is well for such +as they.... They strut about the rooms, they loll upon +the sofas, and eat dainty food, and make others work for +them.” So thought his sister, but without envious feelings, +nor paying any heed to what Simon went on saying; who, +usually taciturn, now held forth on this subject at interminable +length.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At last they arrived. In their bright warm cabin, a fire +was blazing merrily on the hearth. Andrew was peeling +potatoes, and their mother preparing supper.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Close to the fire sat a hoary-headed old man.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is all the work over, Yagna?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Only about three sheets full are still to be cut.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She went into the inner room to change, and was back +again at once, getting things ready for the meal, all the +time keenly and curiously observant of the old man, who +sat profoundly silent, looking into the fire, while his lips +moved and his rosary passed through his fingers, bead by +bead. When they sat down to the meal, the old dame placed +a spoon for him, and asked him to eat with them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Remain ye with God: I go,” he answered. “But I shall +look in here again, and perchance make a longer stay at +Lipka.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kneeling down in the centre of the room, he bent before +the holy images, crossed himself, and walked out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who is that?” Yagna asked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A saintly pilgrim. He comes from the Sepulchre of +Jesus. This many a year have I known him. He has been +here more than once, and brought me holy things from +afar.... About three years since....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She was interrupted by the entrance of Ambrose, who, +after the usual greetings, took a seat by the fire.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is so cold and wet that even my wooden leg feels +numb!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why wander so, in such weather, and in the night too?” +<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>Dominikova grumbled. “You had far better have stayed +at home and said your prayers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“At home I was a-weary; so, coming out to see a girl or +two, I came first of all to you, Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Death is the name of the only girl for you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, <i>she</i>! she has forgotten me quite; she prefers dancing +with the young.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What do you mean?” Dominikova asked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That his Reverence has just carried the Holy Viaticum +to Bartek over the water.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, he was quite well when I saw him but now at the +fair!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He has been so savagely cudgelled by his son-in-law +that his liver was ruptured.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When? and on what account?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“On account of the land, of course. They have been at +odds these six months, and to-day at noon they settled the +matter.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why,” Yagna cried, “is there no judgment of the Lord +upon such murderers?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It will come,” her mother replied sternly, raising her eyes +to the holy images.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, but it will not bring the dead to life,” Ambrose +muttered.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sit down, and share our board.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have naught against that. I still can get through a +dish—if only large enough.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You think of nothing but jesting and drollery.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have nought else in the wide world: why should I +care!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They seated themselves round the bench on which the two +dishes—potatoes and sour milk—had been put, and set to +eating with the usual deliberation and taciturnity, while +Andrew saw to the pots’ being abundantly supplied. Only +Ambrose now and again said something funny, at which +he himself was the first to laugh.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is his Reverence at home?” Dominikova asked towards +the end of the meal.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>“Where else, in such weather? Yes, at home, poring over +books like a Jew.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A learned, a most learned man!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And so good! The best man in the world,” Yagna +chimed in.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, yes. No harm in him.... Takes care of himself, +and hurts nobody.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s not the way to speak, Ambrose!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They had done. Yagna had gone with her mother to +where the distaffs were fixed in front of the fire-place, while +her brothers, as was their custom, cleared away and washed +and set things in order. Dominikova had always ruled her +sons with iron sway, and brought them up to do the duties +of girls, that Yagna’s beautiful hands might not grow coarse.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose lit his pipe, puffed up the chimney, and poked +the embers, while adding some faggots, with furtive glances +at the womanfolk. He was pondering over something and +settling how to begin.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I fancy you must have had a proposal or two.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“More.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Naturally. Yagna is as pretty as a picture. His Reverence +says there is none so pretty in the whole village.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna blushed scarlet with delight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Did he say so?” quoth the old dame. “May the +Lord grant him health! I have long, long been getting +money together for a votive mass: I will have one sung +directly.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There’s somebody that would like to send you a proposal; +but he is somewhat shy.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A farm-hand?” Dominikova inquired, turning the spindle +swiftly, till it fluttered about the floor.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A man with a household under him. Comes of a good +stock, but is a widower.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, nurse another’s children? Not I.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fear nothing, Yagna; they are all well out of leading-strings.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Young as she is, why should she accept an old man? +Let her wait for a young one, if any such should come.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>“Oh, there are plenty. No lack of young men, no! Lads +as straight as arrows, smoking cigarettes, dancing in the +tavern, swallowing drams of vodka, and with a keen eye +for any girl that has a few acres and a bit of money. +Wretched husbandmen, though, who rise at noonday, and +in the afternoon carry dung in a wheelbarrow, and till the +land with a hoe!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I will not let my Yagna stoop to any such!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They say you are the wisest of us all; and they say true.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“On the other hand—small delight can an old man give +a young girl.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She may find young ones to delight her—not a few.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She eyed him severely. “So reverend in years, yet so +careless in talk!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>A pause ensued.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He’s an honourable elder, and not greedy of other folk’s +money.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, no! naught but sin can come of it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, but he might make a marriage settlement,” he continued, +now quite serious, and knocking the ashes out of +his pipe.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The reply, when it came, was given with hesitation.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna has enough of her own.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He would give more than what he received; certainly +more.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s that you say?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What I know. Neither the wind nor my fancy has +taught it me: I come here in another’s name.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Silence again. The old housewife took a long time to +straighten the tangled flax on the distaff; then, wetting her +left thumb and finger, she drew out the long fibres, while +her right set the spindle whirling, flapping and whirring +along the floor like a top.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well then, shall he send her his friends with vodka?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He? Who?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Know you not? He that dwells over there!” And Ambrose +pointed to the lights in Boryna’s hut, twinkling across +the pond.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>“His family are grown up: they will oppose it. Besides, +they have a right to their portions.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But he can always make a settlement with what is his +own! He is a good man, and no indifferent farmer; religious +into the bargain. And hale! Lord, I have seen the +man heave more than two bushels of rye in a sack on to his +shoulders. Let your Yagna wish for anything in the world +except pigeon’s milk, and she will get it. And then, the +lad Andrew is next year to be a conscript. Now, Boryna +knows all about official matters, and whom to apply to, and +may be of great use.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But how do you, Yagna, look upon this?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Indifferently.—If you say: ‘Marry him’ I will. It +is for you, not for me, to decide.” She spoke very low, +her forehead touching her distaff, while, looking vacantly +into the fire, she listened as the faggots crackled merrily.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well?” Ambrose queried, rising from his seat.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let his friends come”; the words dropped one by one +from the old dame’s lips. “A betrothal is not a wedding +yet.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose crossed himself and went out, making straight +for Boryna’s cabin.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna was sitting dumb and motionless.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna dearest, what do you say to this?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Naught whatever; it is all the same to me. If you like, +I marry Boryna; if not, I stay with you.... By your side, +I am very well off.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Her mother spoke in subdued tones as she went on +spinning:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I would fain do all for the best, my dear. True, he is +old, but strong and hearty still. And, besides, he will treat +you courteously, not as other peasants might do. You will +be the mistress and the head of his house. Also, when he +makes the settlement, I shall arrange matters so that the +land he will leave to us will touch ours.... And then, +were the amount only six acres—think of it, Yagna! six +acres more!—And then remember: you must marry, you +<i>must</i>! Why should the tongues of all the village gossips +<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>wag to defame you?... We should have to kill the +pig....” Here she broke off, and went on to settle other +matters within herself; for Yagna was spinning mechanically, +as if she had heard nothing said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Was she, she mused, unhappy at her mother’s? She did +what she liked; no one ever said a cross word to her. Acres, +settlement, possessions, nay, even a husband—what did she +care for them all? Were the lads who sought her few in +number? Had she a mind, she could bring them all to propose +to her the same evening.... Her mind was little by +little being made up, as was the flaxen thread she span; and +as that thread turned in one direction only, so she determined +on one thing—to marry Boryna, if her mother +cared for the marriage—Yes; she liked him better than the +rest: had he not bought her a ribbon and a kerchief?—True; +yet Antek, and others as well, if they owned Boryna’s +money, would do as much for her.—No, no: let her mother +choose, whose head was good at such things: her own was +not.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She looked towards the window, where the withered and +blackened dahlia bushes were tapping, lashed by the gale. +By and by she forgot them, forgot everything, forgot her +very self, and fell into a state of beatific inertness like that +which now held the earth around her in those deathly quiet +nights of autumn. For Yagna’s soul was even as that earth; +as that earth, it had its abysses, dreamy, chaotic, known to +none. Vast it was, but unconscious of its own vastness; +mighty, yet without either will or desire or longing—inanimate, +yet immortal; like that earth, too, swept by every +blast that took hold of her, and seized upon her, and did +with her whatsoever it listed.... And likewise, in the +springtime, the warm sun would awake her, and flood her +with life, and fill her with the quivering flame of desire and +love; and like the earth, her soul would conceive—it could +do naught else; would live and sing, rule, create, and annihilate +its creations—it could do naught else; it would exist—it +could not but exist! Such was that hallowed earth; +such was the soul of Yagna, like unto that same earth.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>Long did she sit thus, mute: only those eyes of hers were +glittering as still waters at noon in spring, or as gleam the +stars.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Suddenly she awoke from her reverie: someone had +opened the front door. It was Yuzka, who rushed breathless +into the room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Shaking the water out of her clogs, she said: “Yagna, +we have the leaf-plucking to-morrow: will you come?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of course.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We shall do the work in the big room. Ambrose is sitting +there now with father, so I made shift to slip out and +let you know. There will be Ulisia, and Mary, and Vitka, +and all the other Pociotek girls. Lads will be there too. +Peter has promised to come and bring his fiddle.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Peter? Who is that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The son of Michael who dwells beyond the Voyt’s house. +He that returned from the army when potato-digging began, +and talks so queerly now, one can scarce understand what +he says.”<a id='r17'></a><a href='#f17' class='c002'><sup>[17]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c004'>After chattering on in this way, she ran off home.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Again the room was plunged in silence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The raindrops pattered on the window-panes, like handfuls +of sand thrown upon them. The wind roared and +played about the garden, or blew down the chimney, till +the brands on the hearthstone were scattered about, and +whiffs of smoke came into the room. But the spindles never +ceased from whirring about the floor.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thus the long evening dragged on tediously, until Yagna’s +mother began to sing in a faint, quavering voice:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“May all that we this day have done...”;</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c011'>Yagna and her brothers taking up the hymn in so high-pitched +a key that the fowls roosting in the passage clucked +and cackled in chorus.</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>The next day was as rainy and dreary as the one +before.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Every now and then, someone would cone out of +a hut to peer anxiously into a mist-blurred world, and see +if it was clearing up a little. And nothing met the eye but +the slate-coloured clouds, so low that they touched the very +tree-tops. And the rain rained on.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The folk were cooped up in the cabins, and getting out of +sorts. One or two went out through the mud and rain to +a neighbour’s, lamenting that So-and-so had left his cattle-litter +in the forest, not having been able to remove it; that +another had not yet brought in his firewood; that many, almost +all, had cabbages in the ground still, and could not +now go to cut them, because the pond had risen so much +during the night that the sluices had been perforce opened, +and the water let out into the river; which consequently had +swollen very greatly and the meadows were flooded, and all +the cabbage plantations like sombre islands amid the drab +and foaming swirl.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Nor had Dominikova been able to get home the cabbages +she had afield.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ever since morning, Yagna was feeling greatly upset, +heaving sighs of vexation as she went from corner to corner, +and looked out of the window at the dahlia bushes, now +beaten to the ground by the flood, and at the whole dripping +landscape.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Good Lord, how weary I am!” she said, impatiently +awaiting the close of day and the start for Boryna’s cabin. +The hours crawled by, like an old man trudging in the +mud—so sluggishly, so wearily, so drearily, that it became +intolerable. She grew very restless, and was continually +<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>scolding her brothers, and flinging about such articles as +she happened to find at hand. Withal, her head began to +ache, and she had to put a warm oatmeal poultice, sprinkled +with vinegar, on the top of her head, before it passed off. +But, though now better, she felt completely out of gear; +her work fell from her hands, and she many a time cast her +eyes upon that surging pond which, like some huge bird, +spread out ponderous wings, and flapped them, and struggled +up, foaming, till the water rose and splashed all over +the road—and all but soared into the air.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova had been out since the morning, called away +to attend a woman in childbed at the farther end of the +village; for she knew a good deal about medicine, and how +to heal various ailments.</p> + +<p class='c004'>So then Yagna was feeling very ill at ease. She longed +to go out of doors and see someone; but whenever she tied +her apron over her head and peered out beyond the threshold +at the mire and the downpour, her desire vanished +away. At last, knowing not what to do with herself, she +opened her chest and took out all her holiday apparel, which +she spread upon the beds, till the room glowed crimson +with striped skirts and jackets and aprons. But that day +she cared nothing for any of them. At all those her possessions +she gazed with tired indifferent eyes; nevertheless, she +drew Boryna’s gifts—the kerchief and the ribbon—from the +bottom of the chest, and adorning herself with them, took a +look at the glass.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They will do. I shall put them on this evening,” she +decided; but took them off again hurriedly, for someone was +coming to the hut, creeping along by the fence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This was no other than Matthew. Yagna cried out in +astonishment as he came in: the very man on whose account +the village folk had talked most against her as having +met him by night in the orchard and elsewhere many a +time. He was a man rather beyond the prime of life, being +well over thirty; still a bachelor, for he did not care to +marry, having sisters at home (or rather, according to Yagustynka’s +malicious tongue, because lasses and neighbours’ +<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>wives were very much to his liking); a tall fellow, strong as +an oak, very sure of himself, and consequently so proud and +headstrong that he was feared by almost everyone. And he +could—what could he not do?—play the flute, construct a +wagon, build a hut, arrange a stove; and whatever he did, +he did so well that his hands were always full of work. +Never of money, though: however much he earned, he would +get rid of it directly, drinking, standing drinks, and lending +to his friends. He was called “Dove,” though in his eyes +and his fiery nature he had much more of the hawk.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthew!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, ’tis I, Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He seized both her hands, and riveted his eyes on hers +with a glance of such passionate eagerness that she turned +red, and looked uneasily towards the door.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have been away these six months,” she stammered.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Six, and twenty-three days besides, is the true reckoning.” +He did not drop her hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall get a light!” she cried; for it was really getting +dark, and she wanted to free her hands.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Give me a greeting, Yagna!” he begged, in a whisper, +and tried to put his arm round her waist. She slipped away, +and ran to the fire-place to kindle a light, fearing lest her +mother should find her in the dark with Matthew. He, +however, was too quick, caught her, squeezed her close, and +set to kissing her with wild impetuosity.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She struggled like a snared bird, but could not free herself +from the ravenous creature that hugged her till her ribs +cracked and showered upon her such mad kisses that she +grew faint; a veil dimmed her eyes, and she could not +breathe.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthew, good Matthew, please let me go!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yet awhile, Yagna, yet again ... for I am frantic!” +And he kissed till the girl drooped and sank limp in his +arms, weak as water. But at that moment he heard steps +in the passage; so he let her go, lit a hand-lamp at the +fire-place, and rolled a cigarette, looking the while at Yagna +with eyes that sparkled with delight.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>Andrew came in, blew the fire on the hearth into a blaze, +and pottered about the room; so they said but little, those +two, whilst exchanging hot glances of hungry, starving desire +all the time.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A few minutes later, Dominikova came in. She must +have been vexed at something or other, for she began by +rating Simon soundly in the passage. Seeing Matthew, she +darted a fierce look at him, paid no heed to his greeting, and +went into the bedroom to change her dress.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go away,” Yagna begged, “or mother will curse you +when she comes.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But he only implored her to come out and meet him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova entered. “You ... you! Back again?” she +asked, as if she had not seen him before.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, back again, Mother,” he answered gently, trying to +kiss her hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Am I a cur, that you call me mother?” she snarled, +snatching her hand away angrily. “Why do you come? +Once for all, I have said you are not wanted here.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I come, not for you, but for Yagna,” he answered, with +a defiant air: he was losing his temper.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’re to drop Yagna for good, I say! Drop her! +Folks shall not again defame her on your account!... +Off, and out of my sight, you...!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why croak so loud? All the village will hear!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let them hear! Let them come! Let them know that +you are sticking to Yagna as a burr sticks to a dog’s tail—that +we need an ovenrake to drive you from us!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, that you were a man! How you would smart for +this!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Try then, hound that you are! Just try, you ruffian, +you bully!” And with those words she grasped the poker.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This brought the scene to an end. Matthew spat furiously +on the ground and went out instantly, slamming the +door. For how could he make a laughing-stock of himself +by coming to blows with a woman?</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thereupon the beldame turned to Yagna, to vent her fury +on her. With what upbraidings did she fall upon the girl, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>and discharge her soul of the gall she was bursting with! +At first Yagna sat dumbstruck and petrified with dismay; +but soon her mother’s bitter words stung her to the quick. +She hid her face in the bed she was sitting by, and burst +into tears and lamentations. She was cut to the heart.... +What wrong had she done?... She had not even asked +him in: he had come by himself.... Mother had reminded +her of last spring.... Well ... he had met her at the +stile.... How could she get away from so impetuous a +fire-drake, when a fit of faintness came over her so?... +And after that ... how could she keep him off? Impossible!... It +was always the case with her: when a man +looked deep into her eyes, or embraced her with a powerful +hug ... then all within her trembled, and her strength +forsook her, and her inwards swooned away, and she knew +nothing more. Was she in any wise to blame for this?</p> + +<p class='c004'>These complaints she uttered in a choking voice, between +bursts of tears; and at last her mother, softening towards +her, wiped her face and eyes with tender care, and stroked +her tresses, and soothed her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come, come, Yagna; be calm: do not weep. Why, your +eyes will look like a rabbit’s: and how will you be able to go +to Boryna’s then?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is’t time to go now?” she asked after a while, a little +comforted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is.—Now dress and array yourself—.There will be +many there, and even Boryna will notice you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna instantly rose and prepared to deck herself out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Shall I boil some milk for you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have no mind at all to eat, Mother dear.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Simon! you hulking oaf! Warming yourself at the fire, +indeed—and the kine gnawing at the empty mangers!” she +cried, exhaling the last of her anger on the lad, who fled +in bodily fear.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“’Tis my mind,” she remarked, helping Yagna dress, +“that the blacksmith has been reconciled with Boryna: I +met him leading a calf home from the old man’s farm.—A +pity! ’twas worth fifteen roubles at least. And yet it +<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>may be as well that they agree together; for the smith +has a dangerous tongue, and knows the law besides....” +She stepped back, and looked lovingly at her daughter. +“Alas! they have let that thief Koziol out of jail already; +and now we shall have to watch, and lock every door +well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna set off; but for some distance on her way she heard +her mother inveighing against Andrew for leaving the swine +out of their sties, and letting the fowls roost in the trees.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Many people were already at Boryna’s when she arrived.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The fire was leaping up the chimney, lighting the big +room, making the glazed picture-frames glisten, and giving +a semblance of motion to the many globes made of coloured +wafers that dangled from the grimy, smoke-blackened rafters. +In the middle there lay a heap of cabbages, round +which, in a wide semicircle, with faces turned towards the +hearth, a good many girls and some women of maturer age +sat side by side, stripping the cabbages of their outer and +withered leaves, and throwing them on to a great sheet that +was spread out under the window.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Having warmed her hands at the fire, Yagna took her +clogs off, and at once sat down to work at the end of the +row, next to old Yagustynka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The room soon grew noisier, more men and women coming +in: some of the former, together with Kuba, helping to +bring the cabbages in from the barn, but for the most part +only smoking cigarettes and grinning at the lasses, or cracking +jokes together.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka, though hardly in her teens as yet, presided over +the work and the fun; for old Boryna had not come home, +and Hanka was as usual flitting about everywhere like a +moth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, the room glows like a field of red poppies!” exclaimed +Antek, who, having rolled several barrels into the +passage, had now set the cabbage-cutter by the fire, but a +little on one side.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Bah! they are dressed up as though for a wedding!” +remarked an elderly woman.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>“And Yagna looks as if she had been washed in milk,” +Yagustynka said, in a spiteful tone.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let me be, will you?” the girl whispered, flushing deeply.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Rejoice, O ye lasses,” the old woman continued; “for +Matthew is back from his wanderings. And now will the +time begin for music, and dancing, and trysts in the +orchards!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He has been absent all the summer.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; building a farm-house at Vola.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A grand master-builder: could build a castle in the air,” +said one of the farm-hands.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And achieve a bantling in less than nine months,” observed +Yagustynka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Always speaking against somebody, you are!” one of +the girls protested.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take heed lest I choose to speak of you!” was the retort.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you heard them say the old wanderer has come to +Lipka again?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He will be with us to-night,” Yuzka boasted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He was away for three years.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, at the Holy Sepulchre.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fiddlesticks! Who saw him there? He lies like a +gipsy, and only fools believe him. Just like the smith, +telling us what he has read in the papers about foreign +parts.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do not say that, Yagustynka. His Reverence himself +told Mother that the man was there.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, we all know that Dominikova’s other home is the +priest’s house, and whenever his Reverence has a stomachache, +she knows all about it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna said not a word, but would have loved to knife +the old hag, for her gibe was the signal of a burst of laughter. +But just then Ulisia, Gregory’s wife, leaned over towards +Klembova and asked her whence the man was.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Whence? From far away; where, no man can tell.” +She stooped to take up another cabbage, and as she cut off +the old leaves, said in a louder tone, so that all might hear +her: “Every third winter he comes to Lipka, and takes up +<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>his quarters with Boryna. Roch is the name he chooses +to go by; but it certainly is not his. He is a <i>Dziad</i>, and yet +no <i>Dziad</i>: what he really is, who knows? But a good and +religious man, that he is no doubt; he only needs a halo +round his head to be just like a saint in a picture. Round +his neck he wears a rosary that has touched the sepulchre +of our Lord. He gives the children holy images, and also—to +some of them—pictures of the kings who once ruled +our country. He has prayer-books besides, and other books +that tell about everything in the world.... He was reading +some of them to our Valek. We listened too, my husband +and I: but the things were hard to make out, and I +have forgotten them.... And so pious! Half the day, he +is on his knees; and then again before the crucifix, or out +in the fields; he never goes to church but for mass. His +Reverence asked Roch to stay with him, but his answer was:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘My place is with the common people, and not in +chambers.’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Everybody knows he is not a peasant, though he speaks +as we do. And how learned he is! He can jabber in +German with a Jew; and at the manor of Djazgova, where +dwells a young lady who was in a warm country for her +health, he spoke with her in an outlandish tongue!—Nor will +he take aught from any man, save a drop of milk or a morsel +of bread: and he teaches our children besides. They +say....”—Here she was interrupted by a great burst of +laughter that made the company hold their sides.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The cause was Kuba, who had been bringing cabbages in +a sheet and, receiving a push, had fallen sprawling on the +floor, all the cabbages rolling about the room. He tried to +rise, but as soon as he began to scramble up, another push +sent him down again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka took his part, and came to help him up at last; +but he was exasperated, and uttered fearful language.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But the interest turned to other matters presently. All +spoke at once, and this—though no one spoke loudly—made +a hubbub as in a hive before swarming-time; and there +were peals of merriment, and banter; and eyes flashed, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>tongues waxed bold, and the work went on swifter and +swifter. The knives rattled upon the stalks, the cabbages +fell into the sheet like a running fire of cannon-balls: every +moment the heap rose higher. Antek was using the +cabbage-cutter over a big barrel rolled close to the fire—undressed, +save for his shirt and the striped drawers that +he wore, flushed, dishevelled, streaming with perspiration, +and yet so handsome that Yagna feasted her eyes on his +picturesque form. From time to time he paused to take +breath; and then he would look at her, and she would cast +her eyes down and blush. This, however, was noticed by +none save Yagustynka, who pretended to have seen nothing, +whilst taking thought how best to spread the news about +the village.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They say Martianna is confined,” Klembova said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s no news, but a yearly thing.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The woman’s an aurochs! But for the babies she has, +she would certainly get a stroke!” Yagustynka grumbled, +and would have gone on, had not the others rebuked her +for talking of such things in the presence of girls.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fear not for them,” she replied. “They know a good +deal more than that already. In these days, you cannot +speak to a goose-boy about the stork, but he will laugh in +your face. No, no, it was otherwise of old times.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, you at any rate knew everything when you were a +cowherd,” said Vavrek’s old wife, very gravely. “Have I +forgotten all you did when tending cattle?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If you have not, then keep it to yourself!” cried Yagustynka, +with wrathful asperity.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I was then already married. Let me see: with Matthew? +No, with Michael; Vavrek was my third,” she muttered, +not quite clear as to the date of the old hag’s youthful +frailties.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here Nastusia, Matthew’s sister, burst breathless into the +room, crying out: “What, are you all sitting here, and +know ye not what has befallen?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Questioned on every side, and with every eye fixed on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>her: “Why,” she said, “the miller’s horses have been +stolen!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But two minutes ago. Our Matthew has just heard of +it from Yankel.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yankel always knows of this sort of things from the +first—and perhaps a little before, too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They were taken out of the stables. The farm-servant +went to the mill to get provender; and when he came back, +the stable was bare, both of horses and harness! And the +dog was found poisoned in its kennel.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Winter is coming on, and strange things happen in +winter.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because there is really no punishment at all for thieves. +Why, what do they get? A warm prison cell, food in +plenty, and so much to learn from their fellow-thieves that, +when they get out, they know twice as much, and are twice +as bad.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but if anyone should steal my horses, and I got +hold of him, I would kill him on the spot like a mad dog!” +cried one of the farm-hands.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Only fools look for justice in this world. Anyone who +can, may right his own wrongs.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Should such a one be caught by a great number of men +and killed, these surely could not be punished: impossible +to punish all of them!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I remember,” said Vavrek’s wife, “something in that way, +done here amongst us.... I had then my second husband—no, +let me see; Matthew was yet living then....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Her reminiscences were cut short by the entrance of +Boryna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh,” he cried in a merry mood, “the noise of your chattering +can be heard across the water!” and taking off his +cap, he greeted each guest, one after another. Possibly he +was already slightly elevated, being as red as a beetroot; and +contrary to his custom, he unbuttoned his capote, and talked +loud and long. He greatly wished to come over and sit by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>Yagna, but durst not: it would never do, so long as things +had not been settled between them. So he only enjoyed +the looks of her—so comely, so well dressed—adorned, too, +with the kerchief he had bought for her!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek and Kuba brought a long bench and set it in front +of the fire. And Yuzka, having wiped it with a clean linen +cloth, at once set on it the necessary dishes and spoons for +supper.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Out of the pantry Boryna brought a big-bellied bottle, +containing four quarts of vodka, and went round drinking +to each visitor, and with him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The girls, however, hung back with affected dislike, until +one of the farm-hands cried out: “They’re all as fond of +vodka as a cat of milk, but just hold off for the look of the +thing!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The hopeless drunkard! Always at Yankel’s, he thinks +everyone is like him!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>So they held off no more, but drank, first turning away +and putting their hands before their faces, then throwing +the last drops on to the floor, with due rites; and each made +a wry face and exclaimed: “How very strong!” as she returned +the glass to Boryna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna alone refused to drink, however much she was +asked.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I do not so much as know how vodka tastes, and I do +not care to know.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, now, sit down, dear friends, and partake of what +we have for you,” was Boryna’s invitation, after the vodka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Several formalities, commanded by good breeding, having +been gone through, they all seated themselves to eat deliberately +and engage in conversation.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The food was so very excellent as to surprise many of the +guests. There were boiled potatoes, served in broth; there +was sodden meat, with barley meal; there was cabbage together +with peas in one dish: all offered with great hospitality +on the part of the master, who not only invited, but +pressed his visitors to enjoy themselves.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek heaped the fire with dry roots, which made a joyful +<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>crackling noise; and while they were eating, Kuba brought +in a heap of fresh cabbages, which he piled up, greedily +sniffing the dainties on the table, and sighing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Those creatures!” he grumbled to himself; “all eating +away like starved horses! Very likely they will not leave +a man as much as a bone to gnaw!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently, however, the meal was over, and all stood up to +say “God reward you!” to the founder of the feast.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May it do you good!” was the set reply.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A few minutes of unrest ensued, during which some went +out to take a little air and stretch their limbs, some to see +whether the sky was clearing up; and the farm-hands, to +stand about the porch and chaff the girls.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And then Kuba sat down upon the threshold, with a dish +on his lap, and gorged himself with such an intensity of +appetite that he did not so much as notice the dog Lapa, +notwithstanding its gentle hints; and Lapa, finding it would +get nothing in that quarter, made for the passage reserved +for the other dogs that had come with the guests and were +gnawing the bones thrown to them by Yuzka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were about to fall to work again, when Roch appeared +upon the threshold, and “praised Jesus Christ.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“World without end!” was the reply of all.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘See ye come not too late, but when food’s on the +plate,’” Boryna quoted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let Yuzka but give me some bread and milk; ’twill do.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There’s some meat remaining still,” said Hanka, timidly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, thanks; I never eat meat.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>At first, all were silent, staring at him with friendly curiosity; +but when he sat down to eat, they soon again fell +a-talking and a-laughing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna alone eyed the old pilgrim again and again, with +wondering looks, surprised that such a one, not unlike +other men, should have visited the tomb of Christ our Lord, +and gone over half the world, and seen so many a marvel. +What was it like, then, the great world he knew? Where +should one go, to arrive at it? Around her there were only +hamlets and fields and pine-forests, beyond which again +<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>stretched fields and pine-forests and hamlets. One must go +a hundred leagues, or perhaps a thousand, she thought. She +was strangely drawn to put some questions to the man; but +how could she? The folk would only laugh at her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Rafal’s son, who had just come back from the army, had +brought his fiddle; and now, having tuned it, began to play +one tune after another. Silence came over the room; only +the rain was heard, pattering upon the panes, and the voices +of the dogs whining outside.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He played and played on, ever some new tune, drawing +his bow across the strings, and the melody seemed to come +forth by itself at its caressing touch. First he played religious +tunes, as though in honour of the pilgrim, who never +took his eyes off the young man. Then came other and +quite worldly airs; for instance, the one about “Johnny has +gone to the wars,” which the girls were used to sing in the +fields so often; and he drew the notes out with such infinite +sadness that an icy shudder ran down one’s spine; and +Yagna, who was sensitive to music as are but few, felt tears, +one after another, trickling down her cheeks.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, do leave off!” Nastka called out. “You are making +Yagna cry.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, no; I always feel tearful when there is music,” +Yagna whispered, covering her face with her apron.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But she could not help the tears that flowed against her +will, called forth by the strange yearning which she felt +within her—and for what? She knew not.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The young fellow went on playing; only the fiddle now +poured out riotous Mazurs and such lively Obertas that +the girls could scarce remain seated, but must perforce +squeeze their restless quivering knees together to do so, while +the boys stamped merrily and hummed the tunes, and the +whole room was in a tumult of noise and laughter, and the +very window-panes were shaking.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On a sudden, a dog in the passage set up a lamentable +howl, a howl so piercing that on the spot the room became as +still as death.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What is that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>Roch had dashed out so suddenly that he had narrowly +missed falling over the cabbage-cutter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No great thing,” Antek cried, after a look into the passage; +“some lad has been squeezing a dog’s tail in the +doorway.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek’s work, I make no doubt,” Boryna said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka defended the boy most earnestly: “What, Vitek +cruel to a dog? Never!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Roch now returned, very greatly agitated. He had probably +let the dog loose, for it was heard outside, whining +close to the fence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A dog, too, is God’s creature,” he said excitedly, “and it +suffers when ill-treated, as does any man. Our Lord also +had a dog of His own, and suffered no one to use it ill.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What? The Lord Jesus had a dog, just as men have?” +queried Yagustynka the doubter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I tell you that He had; and Burek was its name.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The statement was received with a chorus of exclamations: +“Well-a-day!—How now? Can this be!” and so on.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Roch was silent for a while; then, raising his hoary head, +covered with long hair save in front, where it was cut +straight and short over the forehead, and fixing upon the +fire those eyes out of which the colour seemed to have been +washed by many a tear, he began to speak slowly, his beads +slipping meanwhile through his fingers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“In those far-off bygone times, when Jesus our Lord yet +walked upon this earth, and ruled over the nations in His +own Person, the thing of which I shall tell you came to pass.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, Jesus was going to the local feast in the parish +of Mstov. And there was no road thither, but the way +was through desolate burning sands only; and the sun beat +hot upon them, and the air was even as when a storm is +nigh at hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Nor was there any shade or shelter anywhere.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Our Lord walked on patiently; but though He was not +yet near the forest, His holy feet were quite numb with +weary travel, and He felt exceeding great thirst. Therefore +did he again and again stop to rest on some hillock upon the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>way: albeit the heat there was still greater, and there was +not enough shadow from the few dry stalks of mullein for +even a fowl of the air to find shelter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But when He had seated Himself, it was hard for Him, +without air to breathe; for lo, immediately the Evil One—as +a foul goshawk swooping down on some weary little bird—would +swoop down, beating up the sand with his hoofs, +and wallowing therein as would some unclean beast; and a +cloud of sand arose, hiding all things from sight in darkness.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now Our Lord, although He neither could well breathe, +nor indeed move (so dark it was), rose up and walked on, +only laughing to scorn the foolish one, the fiend who would +make Him lose His way, so that He might not be there at +the local feast to save the sinful people.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And Jesus walked and walked, until He came to the +forest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There, in the shadow, He rested somewhat, and refreshed +Himself with water, and with that which was in His scrip.... +Then, breaking off a bough for a staff, He crossed +Himself, and entered the forest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, that forest was most ancient and thick, with great +fastnesses of deep mire, and matted tangles of undergrowth +and dense brushwood, almost impervious even for a bird, +wherein the Evil One himself surely did dwell. Yet Jesus +entered thither.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Whereupon, what did the fiend not do? He shook the +forest, and howled, and broke in twain the great branches +with the help of the blast, as his wicked attendant aiding +him all it could; blowing the oak-trees down, tearing the +branches off, and roaring through the forest like one mad!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Moreover, it grew dark, blindingly dark, and on this +side there was a hubbub, and on that side a din, and on the +other a whirlwind. And round about Jesus there ran hellish +imps, leaping, showing their long teeth, glaring and snarling, +and all but clutching at Him with their claws. Only +that they durst not do, for the awe they had of Christ’s most +sacred Person.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But when our Lord grew weary of all those foolish hobgoblins, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>being in haste to arrive at the local feast, He made +the sign of the Cross over them—and behold, all the evil +spirits with their impish helpers straightway disappeared in +the brushwood.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And lo, there remained only one wild dog; for in those +days the dog had not yet become the friend of man.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“This dog therefore fled not, but, running after our Lord, +barked at Him; and following after, it tore at His capote, +and snapped at His scrip, and would fain have seized the +meat which was therein.... But our Lord, being merciful, +and unwilling to harm any of His creatures, said unto it:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Silly one, hungry one, behold! here is meat for thee!’ +And He threw it some, which He took from out of His +scrip.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But the dog waxed still more angry, and in its fury it +bared its teeth and, snarling, attacked our Lord, and tore +the hose which He was wearing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘I gave bread unto thee; I harmed thee not: and yet +thou tearest My garments, and barkest to no avail? Thou +art foolish, thou little dog of mine, that thou knowest not +thy Master! Because thou hast done this, shalt thou be +the servant of man, and helpless without him evermore.’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When our Lord had said this, speaking in a loud voice, +the dog sat down on its hind quarters; and then, stupefied, +with its tail between its legs, it went away into the wide +world.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, at the local feast, there were many, many people, +thick as the blades of grass on the meadows.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Only the church was empty. They were carousing in +the taverns, and had set up a great fair in the church cloisters, +with drinking and lechery, and sins against God, such +as do happen even in our days.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Our Lord arrived when High Mass was over. He saw +the people agitated like the corn in the breeze, and running +to and fro, some striking with whips, some pulling stakes +out of the fences, and others seeking for stones; and the +women were screaming and rushing to scramble over the +hedges, or into their carts; and the children wept.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>“They all were shouting aloud: ‘Lo, a mad dog! a mad +dog!’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And through the waves of the people the dog sped on, +for all made way for it to pass: so, with tongue lolling out, +it darted straight towards the Lord Jesus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Our Lord feared it not, and He knew that it was the +dog from the forest; and He doffed His capote, speaking +unto the dog; and it straightway went no further.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Come hither, Burek,’ He said; ‘here, by My side, thou +shalt be safer than ever thou wast in the forest.’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He covered it with His capote, and spread His hands out +over it, and said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Kill it not, O men: for behold, it is a creature of God, +wretched and hungry, hunted and without a master.’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Howbeit the peasants began to cry aloud, murmuring, +and striking with their staves upon the earth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘It was a wild and savage beast; it had carried away +many geese and lambs of theirs, and never ceased from doing +evil. Nor did it reverence man at all, but snapped at +him with its fangs, so that none could go abroad, unless +he bore a stick. Wherefore it must needs be slain.’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But Jesus waxed wroth, and cried:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Let no one stir!—O ye drunkards, ye fear a dog, and +ye fear not the Lord your God?’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They then shrank back, for He had spoken with a +mighty voice. And then He said further that they were +evil-doers, who had come to gain the indulgence, and did but +drink in the taverns, and offend God, and repented them +not; men accursed, ungodly, thieves and torturers one of +another; but they should not escape the judgments of God!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And having ended these words, the Lord Jesus took up +His staff, and made as if to depart.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But the people now knew who He was, and knelt down +before Him, and cried out and wept with great lamentations, +saying: ‘Abide with us, abide, O Lord Jesus! and +we will be faithful unto Thee, we drunkards, we ungodly +ones, we evil-doers—only abide with us! Punish us, smite +us, but forsake us not, helpless orphans, a masterless people!’ +<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>And they wept so sore, and begged so earnestly, kissing His +sacred hands and feet, that His heart softened towards +them, and He remained the space of a few prayers, teaching +and shriving and blessing them all.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And when He departed from among them, He said: +‘Hath the dog done any harm to you? Lo, it will hence-forward +be your servant, and watch over the geese and +drive your sheep: and if one or another of you shall sleep, +having drunk over much, it shall be the guardian of your +little holdings, and your friend.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Only do ye treat it with kindness, nor do it any wrong.’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So Jesus went forth, and left them. And looking round, +He saw Burek, sitting where He had stood by its side to +defend it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Wilt thou come with Me, Burek, or abide here in thy +foolishness?’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And thereupon the dog rose up; and thenceforth it always +followed Jesus, as quiet, as faithful, as watchful as +the best of servants could be.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And from that time forth, they were always together.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And if at any time a famine came over the land, the dog +would catch a small bird, or a gosling, or a lambkin; so that +they both had wherewithal to live.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ofttimes also, when Jesus was tired, and rested Himself, +Burek would drive away wicked men and evil beasts, +and not let them hurt Jesus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But when it came to pass that the vile Jews and their +cruel Pharisees seized our Lord to put Him to death, then +Burek flew at them all, poor loving creature! and defended +Him, using its teeth as it could.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But Jesus, stooping beneath the Tree which He was +bearing for His sacred Passion, said unto Burek:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Thou canst do no good: and behold, their consciences +will bite them deeper than thy teeth!’</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And when they hanged Him on the bitter Cross, Burek +sat beside it, and did howl.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, the next day, when all men had departed, and +neither His blessed Mother, nor His holy Apostles were +<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>there, Burek alone abode by His side, and licked again and +again the sacred dying feet of our Lord, pierced through +with nails; and it howled, and howled, and howled.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And when the third day rose, Jesus awoke from His +swoon, and looked; and no one was nigh Him beside the +Cross, save only Burek, whining pitifully, and fawning at +His feet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then did Christ Jesus, our most Holy Lord, look mercifully +upon it in that hour, and say with His last dying +breath:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Come with me, Burek!’</p> + +<hr class='c012'> + +<p class='c004'>“And the dog at that very instant did breathe its last, +and follow its Lord!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Amen.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All this came to pass as I have said, O dearly beloved,” +Roch concluded, pleasantly; and, making the sign of the +cross, he passed over to the other lodgings, where Hanka +had prepared him a corner to sleep in; for he was very +tired.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There was dead silence through the room for a time. +All were pondering over that strange fantastic story. Some +of the girls—Yagna, Yuzka, and Nastka amongst them—stealthily +brushed their tears away; for their emotions had +been strongly excited, both by the doom of Christ, and +by the part played in it by the dog Burek. Also, the very +fact that there had been a dog upon earth better and more +faithful to our Lord than men were, gave them all much +matter for reflection. Slowly, and at first under their +breath, they began to make various comments upon so wonderful +a Divine ordinance; when Yagustynka, who all the +time had listened with great attention, lifted up her head, +and said with a sneer:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fiddle-de-dee, fiddle-de-dee!—One fable and two make +three! I’ll tell you a far better tale: how a man made +an ox.</p> +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>“‘Of old the steer,</div> + <div class='line'>Not the ox, was made;</div> + <div class='line'>But a man took a blade—</div> + <div class='line'>Lo, the ox is here!’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“My tale is at least as true as Roch’s,” she said, with +a burst of laughter. Those about her laughed likewise, and +presently the room was full of jokes, and funny sayings and +tales of all sorts.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, there’s nothing that Yagustynka does not know!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She has learned, she has learned; has she not buried three +husbands?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, yes: the first taught her in the morning with a whip; +the second at noon with a strap; and the third in the evening +with a cudgel!” Rafal cried.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And a fourth would I take, but not you: too stupid a +hobbledehoy for me!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here one of the young men observed: “As our Lord’s +dog could not do without men, so women cannot do without +beating: the want of that is what makes Yagustynka so +spiteful.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’re a fool,” she retorted, with a fierce snarl. “Just +you take heed no one sees you, when you steal your father’s +corn for Yankel; let widows alone, they are beyond your +understanding!”—Everyone was silent, fearing lest she +might, in a fit of anger, tell all she possibly might know. +Indeed, she was a most stiff-necked woman, who held her +own opinion on every matter, and would often utter such +words as made men’s flesh creep, and their hair stand on +end. She had respect for no one, not even for the priest +and the Church. His Reverence had more than once admonished +her, but without effect: nay, she even talked about +his rebukes in the village.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, without any priest we can all manage with God, +if we are but honest folk!—Let him rather take more +heed of his housekeeper: she is with child for the third +time, and will soon be dropping it somewhere, as she did +before.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>Such was her character.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When they were about to separate, the Voyt came in with +the Soltys, giving orders that the peasants should go next +day to work at repairing the road by the mill: it had been +damaged by the rains. No sooner had the Voyt come in +than he exclaimed, stretching out both arms:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, the old boy has invited all the prettiest girls in +the village!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And so he had: all were of the best stock, and robust and +blooming.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt had a private talk with old Boryna, but no +one could catch what they said. He withdrew, after a few +words of banter with the lasses, having still half the village +to summon for the morrow. They too departed soon after, +it being late.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna said farewell to each one in particular, and even +saw the elder women to the gate.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagustynka, on leaving, raised her voice, and said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God bless you for your good cheer; but all was not as +it might have been.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Indeed?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You need someone to keep house for you, Matthias: +without such a one, how can things go right?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s to be done, friend? What’s to be done?... +She died, it was God’s will....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have we no girls here? Why, every Thursday they all +wait for you to propose to one of them,” she said, cunningly +trying to draw him out. But Boryna only scratched +his head and smiled, looking instinctively towards Yagna, +who was going out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek expected her exit; so he dressed quickly and +slipped out first.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna had to return alone: her companions all lived in +the direction of the mill.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna!” he whispered, coming suddenly out of a +hedge-side.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She stopped, knew his voice, and was at once seized with +emotion.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>“I’ll see you home, Yagna!”—He looked round; the night +was black, starless. Above them, the wind roared, sweeping +over the tree-tops.</p> + +<p class='c004'>His arm enclosed her waist in a tight grasp; and, one +close to the other, they both vanished in the gloom.</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>It was on the following day that the news of the marriage +arranged between Boryna and Yagna burst upon the +village of Lipka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt had gone over to her with the proposal. His wife, +whom he had severely forbidden to breathe a single word +about the matter until he had come back with the answer, +waited till evening to visit an acquaintance, on the pretext +of borrowing some salt; and as she went away, she took her +good friend apart, and whispered:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do you know what? Boryna has just sent a proposal +to Yagna, daughter of Dominikova. But beware and tell no +one, for my husband has forbidden me to speak of it at all.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Can this be?” she gasped in amazement. “Should my +tongue wag of such a thing about the village?... So old +a man, taking a third wife!... And his children, what +will they say?... Oh, what a world it is!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>No sooner had the Voyt’s wife withdrawn than, tying +her apron over her head, she hurried through the orchard to +the Klembas’, “just to borrow a bit of tow to scrub with.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you heard? Boryna is to marry Yagna, daughter +of Dominikova! He has but now sent messengers with his +proposal.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Impossible! What do you say? Nay; he has full-grown +children, and is himself stricken in years.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“True, he is not young. But they will not refuse him for +that.... A farmer so reputable, a man so rich!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, but that Yagna! she that has had dalliance, and with +more than one! To be the wife of the first farmer here! +Is there any justice in the world, say? And meanwhile, so +many a girl is remaining unwedded—my younger sister, for +example!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>“Or my brother’s widow.... Or the Kopzyva girls.... +Or Nastka, and many another.—No, it is not seemly, ’tis +not meet, not right; what think you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She will be mightily puffed up, and strut about like a +peacock, will she not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Great offence of God there must be: be sure that neither +the smith nor Boryna’s children will suffer her as a +stepmother.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Alas, what can they do? The land is as much his own +as his will is.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“By law, yes; but in justice, it belongs to them as +well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My dear friend, justice is always for him who has the +power to get it on his side.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They continued thus, complaining and inveighing against +the world and all its deeds, and went their way. And with +them the news spread throughout the hamlet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The little work there was to do was not urgent; so the people +were all at home, the roads being as quaggy as so many +sloughs; and the possible marriage was discussed in every +cabin. All were eagerly expectant of what would take place. +They well knew how headstrong Boryna was, and that he +would not be turned away from a course he had chosen for +himself, even were his Reverence to dissuade him. They +knew, too, the unyielding pride of Antek’s nature.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Even those men who had been drafted to mend the mill-side +road where the dam had burst, stopped in their work +to talk of so momentous an occurrence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Various opinions were set forth; and at last, old Klemba, +an intelligent and respected farmer, gave the stern +judgment:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The whole village will be the worse for this!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Antek will not suffer it,” someone said. “What, another +mouth to feed?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That would make no difference. But the inheritance! +There’s the rub.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There will surely have to be a marriage settlement.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; Dominikova is shrewd, and will manage that.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>“She is a mother,” Klemba put in, “and even a bitch will +defend her own puppies.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thus, all the afternoon, the people in the village were +talking the matter over. Which was no wonder, the Boryna +family being of the very best stock of husbandmen, and +Matthias holding land which had from time immemorial +belonged to his people, being also endowed with hereditary +keenness of wit, as well as riches; so that everybody, +willingly or not, had to take him into account.</p> + +<p class='c004'>To none of his children, however, not even to the smith, +durst anyone tell the news: the rage it would cause might be +so great as to result in a sound thrashing for the teller.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All then was quiet at Boryna’s hut; more so, indeed, than +usual. The rain had ceased since morning, and the sky was +clear. Antek, along with Kuba and the womenfolk, had +been sent to the forest at once after breakfast, in order to +get some dry fuel, and see whether they could not rake +together some supply of pine-needles.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna himself had stayed at home. Since early morning, +he had been curiously ill-humoured and strangely +irritable, always on the look-out for someone who should +bear the brunt of the impatience and nervousness which had +seized upon him. He had beaten Vitek for omitting to +spread straw beneath the cows, which consequently had +spent the night with their sides deep in dung; had quarrelled +with Antek, and scolded Hanka, because her little +boy had dirtied himself while playing outside the house; and +had even spoken harshly to Yuzka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When he was at last alone with Yagustynka, engaged +overnight to see to the cattle the next day, he no longer +knew what to do with himself. Again and again did he call +to mind what Ambrose had related of his reception by +Dominikova. Nevertheless he felt uneasy, and doubtful of +the old fellow, who was able to tell any lie to get a glass +of vodka. So he prowled about the hut, looking, now from +the window, now from the porch, in the direction of Yagna’s +dwelling; and as a beggar waits for alms, so he awaited the +coming of the night.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>Many and many a time did he long to be off to the Voyt’s +and urge the man to start sooner: notwithstanding, he remained +at home, restrained by the look in Yagustynka’s +eyes, half closed and expressive of sarcastic amusement, +which were continually fixed upon him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That hag!” he said to himself; “her eyes are gimlets.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She meanwhile went about the house and passage with +her distaff under her armpit, seeing to things here and there. +She span till her spindle whirred in the air as it turned; +then she wound up the thread, and went out to the geese, +the swine, the byre, while Lapa, drowsily and heavily, +followed her steps. She spoke not a word to the old +man, though she well knew what it was that tormented +him so, and even drove him to put up stakes round the +walls for the winter sheathing that was to keep the house +warm.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now and then, however, she made halt in front of him; +and at last she said: “You seem not to be getting on with +your work to-day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Devil take it! no, I’m not.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh!” she thought, as she went away; “the place will be +a hell ... a hell!—But the old man is right to marry—quite +right. If he did not, his children would be sure +to give him board and lodging—as mine have done for +me!... Yes, I made over a good ten acres of the very +best land to them. And here I am!” She spat angrily. “I +must go out now to work, and lodge in another’s dwelling!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>At last the old man, unable to stand it any longer, tossed +his ax away and shouted: “Curse this work!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There’s something that troubles your mind.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There is, there is!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And yet you have no reason in the world to be troubled.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Much you know of it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagustynka came and sat down close by the wall, pulled +out a long thread, wound it on the spindle, and said, slowly +and not without trepidation:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fear nothing. Dominikova has a good head, and +Yagna is no fool.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>“What have you said!” he cried out delighted, and sat +down by her side.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have eyes to see.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>There was a long pause, each awaiting what the other +would say.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Just invite me to your wedding; and I’ll sing you such +a Hop-song<a id='r18'></a><a href='#f18' class='c002'><sup>[18]</sup></a> as will bring about a christening in the house +in nine months....” So she began; but, seeing the old +man scowl, she changed her tone.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthias, you are doing just what you should do. Had +I but sought out another husband when mine died, I should +not now have to lodge in a house that is not my own. Oh, +no!... But I was a simpleton, I trusted to my children: +they were to board me. I made over all I had to them: +and now?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I,” he answered in a hard voice, “will give up not +one single bit of ground.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Right.—I had to drag my cause from court to court: +the few <i>zloty</i> that I had went all that way, yet they got me +no justice. And here I am in my old age, degraded to a +woman of all work!—Last Sunday I went to them, only just +to see my old place once more, and the orchard I had +planted myself; and my daughter-in-law beshrewed me, +saying I had come to spy on her! To spy, good +heavens!... I thought I should fall down dead.—I went +to his Reverence, that he might rebuke them from the pulpit +for those words; but he told me that our Lord would make +me amends for the wrong they had done. Aye, aye! of +course. For him that has nothing in the world, even God’s +grace is worth having; but I would far rather have property +here on earth, and sleep my fill in a warm room and a +feather-bed, and eat much butter and fat, and divert +myself!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She continued holding forth against everything in the +world, and with such violence that Boryna left her, and +sallied out to the Voyt’s: for twilight was at hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>“Well, are you starting yet?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“This very minute: Simon will be here at once.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Simon appeared and all three went to the tavern, to toss +off a dram and get a flask of rum for the proposal-offering.... +Ambrose, who was there before them, joined +them directly; but they could not drink long, for Matthias +was urging them to make haste.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall be waiting here for you. If they drink back, +then bring them hither.—And speedily!” he added, calling +after them as they went out.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They walked along the middle of the road, splashing +through the mud. The twilight deepened, covering the land +with its gossamer web of sober grey; and soon the village +was no more, save for the cabin lights that began twinkling +through the dusk, and the barking of the watchdogs in the +farm-yards.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My fellow-messenger!” said the Voyt, after a time.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Boryna’s wedding will, I fancy, be a grand one.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s as it may be,” the other returned, in surly +fashion; he was a taciturn man.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It will, I tell you—I, the Voyt, a man whom you may +believe. We shall make such a match of it that.... Ha! +ha!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The mare may prove restive, if so be the stallion prove +not to her liking.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That does not concern us in any wise.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But his children—they will curse us, sure.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All shall be well: I the Voyt tell you so.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And they walked into Dominikova’s hut.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The room was lighted, and carefully swept; they were +expected.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The messengers “praised God”; then, greeting in turn +everyone present, took seats close to the fire-place, and +opened the conversation.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The weather is cold; there seems to be a frost at hand.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Very likely; it is not springtime, nor near it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you gathered in all the cabbages?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>“All but a few that we cannot get in just now,” the old +dame replied indifferently, casting her eyes on Yagna, who +was near the window, making up skeins of spun flax, and +who looked so comely that the Voyt, a man still in the +golden time of life, cast an eager glance at her, before he +said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As the ways are foul and miry, and the night-air is dank, +I and Simon the Soltys here thought we would enter your +dwelling on our way. And seeing that you have received +us with a kind and friendly welcome, perchance, Mother, +we may even drive a bargain with you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A bargain may be driven only when there is something +about which to drive it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Spoken truly, Mother, but that we have found already +in your house: livestock, and of the best.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well,” she cried, in good humour, “let us bargain, then.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We would fain, for instance, bargain for a heifer of +yours.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oho! that will be no small thing, and ye shall not lead +her away with the first rope at hand!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As to that, we have for her a hallowed silver cord, and +such that none can break it, he be strong as ten.—Well, how +much, Mother?” And he pulled the flask of rum out of his +pocket.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How much?—Hard to say! She is young, will be nineteen +in spring: good and hard-working. She might yet remain +a year or two with her dam.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Years without offspring, Mother; barren years!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah,” Simon whispered, “were she other than she is, she +might have offspring, even should she stay with her dam!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt gave vent to a loud laugh. The old woman’s +eyes flashed angrily, and she made answer on the spot:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Seek another, then! Mine can wait.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She can; but we can find nowhere another so beautiful, +or of so good a breed.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then what do you say?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I who speak am the Voyt: so believe what I tell you.”—He +took out a glass, wiped it on the skirt of his capote, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>filled it with rum, and said gravely: “Pay good heed, +Dominikova, to what I say now. I am in office. A bird +on the bough may chirp and twitter, and is gone: my word +is not thus.—Simon too: all here know who he is; no man +of straw, but a husbandman, the father of a family, and +our Soltys! Mark well, then, who we are that come to you, +and with what intention; mark this well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I do so, Peter, and most carefully.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now you, being a wise woman, must therefore know that, +sooner or later, Yagna will surely leave your house for +her own, as the Lord hath ordained. Parents breed up +their children, not for themselves, but for the public +weal.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, Mother, ’tis true, ’tis true!</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“‘You may pet her and guard and caress,</div> + <div class='line'>But give her you must none the less;</div> + <div class='line'>Aye, and him that shall take her you’ll bless!’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“The world is made so, and there is no changing it.—Now, +Mother, shall we drink together?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How can I say? I will not force her.—Will you drink, +Yagna?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I ... I don’t know,” she stammered in a thin voice, +turning her burning face to the window.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The lass is docile,” Simon put in, with gravity. “‘A +docile calf, beyond all doubt, thrives, sucks much milk, and +waxes stout.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, shall I pass it on to you, Mother?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Drink ye, by all means; but we do not yet know who +it is proposes,” Dominikova remarked, attentive to the +rules of etiquette that required her not to seem to know +until told by the messenger.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who?” he exclaimed. “Why, who but Boryna himself!” +and he lifted his glass.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, an aged man! A widower!” she objected, as in +duty bound.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aged? ’Tis a sin to say so! Aged? and but now he was +accused.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>“I know: only the child was not his.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How could it be? A man of such repute, was he to +put up with any but the very best?—Come, here’s to you, +Mother!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fain would I drink; but he is a widower.—Old, he may +soon be in Abraham’s bosom: and what then? Her stepchildren +would thrust her out.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here Simon interposed. “Matthias,” he growled, “said +there must needs be a settlement.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of course before the wedding.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt, having filled another glass, turned with it to +Yagna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come, drink, Yagna, drink to us! The swain we propose +you is strong as an oak: you’ll be his lady, the keeper +of his household, the first of all in the village! See, I +drink to you, Yagna: do not be shamefaced!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She flushed scarlet, and turned away; but finally, throwing +her apron over her face, she tasted a little, and threw +the rest on to the floor.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The glass then passed round to all. The old dame produced +bread and salt, and lastly some dried and smoked +sausages as a relish.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Several times in succession did they drink, and in a +little their tongues were loosened. But Yagna had fled into +the inner chamber, where, she knew not why, her tears burst +forth, her sobs becoming audible through the partition. +Her mother would have followed, but the Voyt kept +her back.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Even calves, when weaned from their dams, shed tears: +’tis common. She is not to go away, no, not to the next +village even: and you will still enjoy each other’s company. +It is I, the Voyt, who say it: she shall come to no harm: +believe me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, but I always thought to have grandchildren for my +consolation.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let not that trouble you. The first of them will be here +before the harvest!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The future is known to the Lord alone, not to us sinners. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>We have drunk to her betrothal, and yet my heart +is heavy, as if ’twere a burial.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Nothing strange. An only daughter, she ought to be +duly mourned over.... Yet a little more, to drive your +grief away.—Ah, do you know, let us all go to the tavern. +There Yagna’s future husband awaits us, boiling over with +fierce impatience.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Shall we celebrate such an occasion in a tavern?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As our fathers of yore. I, the Voyt, have spoken.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna and Dominikova put on their best dresses, and +all started off. But the Voyt remarked how disappointed +her brothers were looking. “Are the lads to remain, then?” +he said. “It is their sister’s engagement-day: some pleasure +is due to them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Can we leave the house to the care of Providence?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then take Agatha from the Klembas; she will see to +the place.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She has gone begging. We shall get someone on our +way. Well, Simon and Andrew, come; but put your +capotes on. Would you come in your shabby everyday +clothes?—And if either of you gets tipsy ... he will never +forget it!—The kine have not yet been cared for, and ye +must mash potatoes for the swine.—See ye to it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We will, Mother, we will!” they both exclaimed, +trembling with fear, though they were both big lads, as high +as a small pear-tree, such as are planted along the fields.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And so presently they went to the tavern.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The night was murky and as dark as pitch, as is usual +enough during the autumn rains. The wind roared overhead, +swaying the tree-tops till they nearly lashed the +neighbouring hedges.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When they arrived, the tavern had a gloomy look. A +pane had been broken in the window, and the gusts that +entered made the tiny lamp which hung above the bar by a +cord swing there to and fro like a golden flower.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna rushed to welcome and embrace and hug them +warmly, knowing that Yagna was already as good as +his own.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>“Our Lord hath said: ‘Thou worm, take unto thee a +wife, that thou, poor wretch, shouldst not suffer loneliness!’” +So Ambrose said, or bleated rather: he had been drinking +for more than an hour, and was good for little, either in the +talking or the walking line.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Jew instantly set before them rum, sweetened vodka, +and “essence”; also salt herrings, saffron-seasoned cakes, and +others (very dainty) made with poppy-seed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Eat ye, drink ye, dearly beloved brethren, true Christians!” +cried Ambrose, taking upon himself to invite the +guests. “I had a wife once—but cannot at all remember +now where—In France, I think—no, in Italy! No, not +there—but now I am bereft and a widower.... I tell you: +our ancients used to cry thus: ‘Attention!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here Boryna interrupted him. “Drink deep, friends!... +And you, Peter, give the example!” And then he brought +Yagna a whole <i>zloty’s</i> worth of caramels, and put them into +her hand. “Here you are, Yagna, they are very sweet: +here you are!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>She made as if she were disinclined to take them. “They +cost so much money,” she said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fear not, I can well afford it.... You will see later.—Oh, +if pigeon’s milk were to be bought for any money, I +would buy some for you, dear! Oh, how happy you will +be with me!” And, taking her round the waist, he pressed +her to partake of all that was there. And she did: accepting +all, however, as coolly and indifferently as if it were someone +else’s engagement-day. She only thought: “Will the +old man give it me before the wedding, that coral necklace +he told me of at the fair?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now they began to drink in earnest—rum and +sweetened vodka alternately, and all talked at the same +time. Even Dominikova was not a little flustered, and she +chattered and held forth about many a matter, so that the +Voyt wondered at the wisdom she displayed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Her sons were likewise in their cups, for again and again +either Ambrose or the Voyt urged them to take some more. +“Toss off your glasses, boys, ’tis Yagna’s engagement-day!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>“Yes, yes, we know,” they answered, and wanted to kiss +the old sexton’s hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was then that Dominikova took Boryna apart to have +a straight talk with the man.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna is yours—yes, yours, Matthias!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thanks, Mother, for your gift of her.” He put his arm +round her neck and embraced her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You promised to make her a settlement, I understand.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why need there be any? All I have is hers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“In order that she may look her stepchildren in the face +and laugh at their curses.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Woe betide them, if they interfere! All is mine, all is +Yagna’s.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Kindly said. Only note this: you are somewhat elderly. +Besides, we all are mortal. And, you know:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“‘Death none can refuse:</div> + <div class='line'>He takes all he can,</div> + <div class='line'>Now a lamb, now a man,</div> + <div class='line'>Not caring to choose!’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but I am hale—good for a score of years yet. +Never you fear!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Never-Fear was eaten by the wolves.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, I am glad you speak out! Would you have me +settle on her the three acres I have, close to Luke’s field?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘A hungry dog will try even to catch a fly,’ as they +say; but we are not hungry. Yagusia is to inherit five +acres, besides one of forest-land, from her father. Settle +six acres on her, you: those six where you grew potatoes last +summer—close to the road.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My very best fields!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna too is the pick of the village.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She is, indeed: therefore I sent you my proposers. But, +mercy on us! six acres! It is a whole farm!” He scratched +his head in perplexity; for his heart was sore at the thought +of giving up so much of his best land.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My good friend, consider, like the intelligent man you +are, and you will see that the settlement is only a protection +<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>for my daughter. No one can take the land from you, so +long as you live: while all that Yagna has inherited from +her father will be yours at once. I will send for a land-surveyor +when spring comes round, and you will even be +able to sow it then. And, seeing that such an arrangement +cannot harm you, you will readily settle those six acres +upon her.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Good: I will.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And when?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To-morrow, if you like!—No, on Saturday, when we +have put up the banns; we shall then go straight to town. +After all: ‘A goat dies once, and then—Never again!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come hither, Yagna, daughter dear!” She called to the +girl, whom the Voyt was pushing towards the bar, while +telling her something that made her laugh loud.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna, Matthias here will settle on you those six roadside +acres of his.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Many thanks,” she murmured, and offered him her hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Drink ye all to Yagna, most sweet Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They drank, and Matthias put his arm round her waist +to lead her to the other guests assembled; but she slipped +away, and ran to her brothers, who were talking and +drinking with Ambrose.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the tavern, the din was ever growing louder and +louder, as more people dropped in. Many, hearing voices, +had come in to know what was going forward: some, too, to +get a drink for nothing. Even the blind old man, led by +his dog, was there in a good place, where all could see him; +and he now listened and now said prayers aloud; so loud +that Dominikova, hearing him, gave him some vodka, a +morsel to eat, and a few kopeks besides.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The carouse went on; and soon, as is customary on such +occasions, everybody was dear friend and own brother to +everybody else.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The only silent one was the Jew. To and fro he glided, +ever setting more and more spirits and bottles of beer +before his guests, and scoring up everything with chalk +behind the door.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>Boryna, beside himself with joy, took dram after dram, +urged his guests to drink, talked as he had seldom in his +life been heard to talk, and was incessantly coming round +to Yagna, offering her dainties, stroking her beautiful face, +and taking her into some dusky corner, with his arm +round her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Very soon Dominikova saw it was high time to go home, +and called her sons to set out with her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Simon was quite fuddled now; so when she spoke, he set +his girdle straight, smote the table with his fist, and +cried out:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Out upon it! I am a farmer, I! Who cares to go, let +him go. If I choose to stay and drink, I will.—More vodka, +you Jew!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Be silent, Simon! Oh, be silent: else she will trounce +you!” So Andrew moaned, with maudlin tears in his eyes, +pulling his brother by the coat. He, too, was very far +gone.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Boys!” she hissed, threateningly, “home! come home!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am a farmer. I! If I choose to stay, Lo, I stay, and +drink.... I have enough of Mother’s rule.... Thwart +me, and I turn you out! Down with it all!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But the old woman then struck him such a blow in the +chest that he staggered and was sobered forthwith. Andrew +took him out into the road, after placing his cap on his +head. But the cold air overcame Simon once more: he only +took a few steps forwards, then tottered, caught at the hedge, +and fell down, shrieking and groaning.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“’Sdeath! I am a farmer. The property is mine, and I +drink, if I choose; and if I choose, I work!—Jew! more +rum!—Thwart me, and I turn you out!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Simon! Simon! For God’s sake!” whimpered Andrew, +weeping abundantly; “come home, Mother is after you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Indeed, she was there directly, together with Yagna; and +they both got the lads from beneath the hedge, where they +were making some feeble attempts to fight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After their departure, other people also went out, and +the tavern grew somewhat less noisy. At last no one remained +<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>there but Boryna and his messengers, with Ambrose +and the blind beggar, all now drinking at one table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose was very mellow indeed. He stood up in their +midst, now singing, now shouting very loud.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He was quite black—black as that pot! He aimed ... but +where did he hit me? where?... And I—I thrust my +bayonet into him, and twisted it: I heard his inside gurgle!—So +we halt—halt! And the commander himself arrives +with more men.—Ah! the commander! ‘Boys,’ he says, +‘boys!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Attention!’” the old man cried, in a voice of thunder. +And he stood stiffly erect, and stepped slowly backwards, his +wooden leg stumping along the floor: “Drink to me, Peter! +to me who am an orphan!” he bleated out; but when close +to the wall, suddenly he whipped out of the place. But +they could still hear the braying of his voice, raised in song +outside.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Just then the miller entered the tavern: a big burly fellow, +red-faced, dressed town-fashion, and with small keen +eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Drink, lads, drink together!—Ho, ho! the Voyt, the +Soltys, and Boryna!—Is it a wedding?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, it is not.—Sir miller, take a drink with us,” Boryna +said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And once more the vodka went round.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, now to you all three thus together, I shall tell +some news that will sober you in no time.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>All stared at him vacantly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not an hour since, the Squire sold the clearing of Vilche +Doly!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The hound! the miscreant! What, sell a clearing that +belongs to our village!” Boryna shouted, smashing a bottle +on the floor in a fit of rage. “Sold it, has he? But there +is law—law both for the Squire and for all of us!” Simon +stammered; he was completely intoxicated.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It’s false! I, your Voyt, have spoken: believe me, it’s +false!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Sold it! Ha!—But we won’t let anyone take it: as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>there’s a God in heaven, we won’t!” Boryna growled, and +he brought his fist down upon the table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The miller left them, and they stayed there far into the +night, taking counsel together, and breathing threats against +the manor-folk.</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>It was shortly after Yagna’s engagement had taken place; +All Souls’ Day had dawned.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ever since morning, the church-bells of Lipka had +tolled incessantly, slowly; their doleful and sorrowful notes, +floating over the desolate fields, called the people together +with deep-sounding voices of sadness on this day, which +rose pallid and swaddled in fog, as far as the far-off horizon—where +the earth and the sky met, no one knew where, in +a vague unfathomed abyss of vacuity.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now, as soon as the sun arose in the east, which still +glowed red as copper molten and cooling, hosts of crows +and daws had been coming thence, winging their flight from +beyond the lurid clouds.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They flew very high; so high that neither the eye could +well make them out, nor the ear catch distinctly the wild +and melancholy harshness of their croaking, which sounded +like weeping in the autumn night.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And from the belfry, the tolling sounded continually.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The deep notes of that doleful hymn rolled heavily +through the thick nebulous air—rolled all over the country-side, +and men and fields and villages seemed as one vast +heart, throbbing to the dismal dirge.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And still the flocks of birds increased, even to the dismay +and stupefaction of the people; for now they flew lower, +ever in vaster multitudes, sprinkling the sky as with scattered +specks of soot; and the dull flapping and croaking +was now louder, more boisterous, more turbulent—like a +storm that is drawing nigh. They swept in circles over the +village: and as a heap of dead leaves the blast plays with, +so they wheeled over the ploughed lands, floated down to +the woods, hung above the skeleton poplar-trees, took possession +<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>of the lindens round about the church, and perched +upon the trees in the burial-ground.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A severe winter it will be,” people said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Snow is going to fall—they are flying towards the +woods.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They now approached the huts in still greater numbers; +never before had so many been seen together. People +looked at them, sighing, in fear of an evil omen, and some +made on their brows the sign of the Cross, as a protection +from the evil to come, and put on their garments to set +out for church. And continually the tolling sounded with +a dull roar; from the neighbouring villages the people were +already coming to pray.</p> + +<p class='c004'>An all-pervading sense of desolation filled every soul; +in every heart, there reigned a strange distressful silence: the +stillness of mournful reminiscences, the recollections of +those who had gone before, gone to lie beneath the drooping +birch-trees, and the darkly looming crosses, that stood +slantwise in the churchyard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O my Jesus! O my beloved Jesus!” they would murmur, +and then raise up their ashen-grey faces, and fear no +longer, plunging into the mystery of futurity: and they +calmly went forward to present their offerings and to say +their prayers for the dead.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The whole village was as though lost in a sea of grave +and heart-stricken quietude: only the whining singsong of +the <i>Dziads</i> at the church-door now and then broke the +stillness.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At Boryna’s, the silence was especially deep: though indeed +it was of that hell which reigned amongst them, and +was on the point of bursting forth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>His children knew all by that time.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The day before being Sunday, the first banns had been +published from the pulpit. On Saturday, Boryna had gone +with Yagna to town, where he had settled six acres of land +upon her in the presence of a notary. He came back late, +and with his face scratched. Being the worse for liquor, he +had behaved disrespectfully to Yagna; but had only got +<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>acquainted with the strength of her arm and the sharpness +of her nails.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On his return, he said no word to anyone, but went to +bed as he was—in his boots and sheepskin coat; and when +Yuzka next morning complained that he had soiled his +feather-bed with mud:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let me alone, Yuzka, let me alone!” he answered her +merrily. “Such a thing may happen sometimes, even to +one who has not been drinking.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the morning he had gone over to Yagna, and stayed +all day: at home, dinner and supper waited for him in vain.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This day, too, he rose late, considerably after dawn, put +on his best capote, ordered Vitek to smear his Sunday boots +with grease and line them with fresh-cut straw, was shaved +by Kuba, girt himself, and, taking his hat, slipped out +through the fence, and was seen there no more that day.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka cried all the time. Antek was in the grip of tortures, +even sharper and more agonizing, and could neither +eat, nor sleep, nor busy himself in any way. He felt dazed +as yet, and could not wholly realize what had come to pass. +His face had grown sombre, but his eyes seemed larger, and +flaming glassily—full of hardened tears, as it were. He +had to clench his teeth lest he should cry out and curse +aloud, and was continually walking about the cabin, or +around it, or about the enclosure, or in the road; and on +coming back, he would throw himself on a bench in the +porch, and sit there motionless for hours, racked by sufferings +that were ever growing more intolerable.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The house was dreary, and within it there continually resounded +the sound of weeping, as sobs and sighs resound in +a house wherein someone lies dead. The doors of the byre +and the sties stood wide open, the cattle and swine wandered +about at liberty in the orchard, some even looking in at +the windows. No one attempted to interfere with them +but old Lapa, who barked and tried to drive them in again, +but unsuccessfully.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Sitting on his truckle-bed in the stable, Kuba was cleaning +<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>a gun, while Vitek, gazing at him in wondering awe, +took care to keep a look-out on the yard, for fear someone +might drop in.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, what a noise it made! Lord! I thought it was the +Squire or the keeper shooting.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, yes. I had not shot for ever so long, and the charge +I put in was too big: it roared like a cannon.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Did you go in the evening at once?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, to the manor lands close to the wood. The roebucks +are fond of coming that way to crop the sprouting +blades in the sown fields. It was very dark, and I had long +to wait. Just at dawn, a buck came by. I was so well +hidden that he was only five paces away from me. But I +did not shoot. He was as big as an ox, and I knew I could +not carry him off. So I spared him; and after the space +of a few Paters, some does appeared. I chose the finest, +and took aim. What a report there was! I had put in a +heavy charge: it kicked so, my shoulder is one bruise still. +And the doe fell; but she still kicked, and made such a +fearful noise that I was afraid the keeper might hear, and +I had to cut her throat.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek was full of enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And—did you leave her in the wood?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Where I left her, I left her: it’s no business of yours. +And if you say a single word about this to anyone ... +you’ll see what I shall do to you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I won’t, if you forbid me; but may I not tell Yuzka?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The whole village would know directly. No.—But, here +is a five-kopek piece, for you to buy something with.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Without that, I’d hold my tongue.—But, O dear, dear +Kuba! take me with you some day!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Breakfast!” Yuzka was in front of the cabin, calling +to them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Be easy, Vitek, I shall take you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And you’ll let me shoot—once, only once?” he entreated.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Silly one! think you they give gunpowder for nothing?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I have money, Kuba, I have. Master gave me two +<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span><i>zloty</i> for the last fair, and I was keeping them for the +Memorial offering. But....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Very well; I shall teach you how to shoot,” he whispered, +patting the boy’s head, and touched by his appeal.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Almost as soon as they had finished breakfast, they went +together to church. Kuba limped along as fast as he could; +but Vitek lagged a little behind: he was ashamed to have to +go barefoot, for he had no boots.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is it right to go into the vestry without boots?” he queried +in a low voice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are foolish. Does our Lord consider a man’s boots, +not his prayers?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“True; but are not boots more respectful?” he whispered +sadly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, you will get boots one of these days.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That I shall! Let me but grow up to be a farm-hand, +I shall directly go off to Warsaw and get a place in some +stable. In the town, they all wear boots, don’t they, Kuba?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They do.—Can you remember anything about Warsaw, +Vitek?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of course. I was five when Kozlova brought me here; +so I recollect perfectly.... Yes, we went on foot to the +station, and there I saw no end of glowing lights ... and +houses all one close to another, and as big as churches.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Nonsense!” cried Kuba, disdainfully.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I remember quite well. I could not see the roofs, +they were so high. Windows, too, to the very ground. +Whole walls of windows! And everywhere bells were ringing +continually.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No wonder; there are so many churches there.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Else whence could the ringing have come?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now they were silent, having entered the churchyard +and begun to push their way through the dense throngs that +filled all the space round the church, not being able to get +in.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There the <i>Dziads</i> had formed a lane from the church to +the road, crying out, screaming, uttering prayers, or asking +<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>alms, each in his own way; some were playing on fiddles, +and droning out hymns in mournful voices; others on +flageolets or concertinas; and all together causing such a +racket as almost to make one deaf.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The vestry, too, was full of people: so full that they were +sorely squeezed against the tables, where the organist and +his son (the one who had been at school) were taking down +the names given for the Memorial offerings.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba got through the press, and rolled off a long list +of names to the organist, who wrote them down, and received +for each soul three kopeks, or as many eggs (in case +one had no ready cash).</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek was not able to push forward so fast, for his bare +feet were sorely trod upon, but he got on as well as he could, +clutching the money in his hand. When, however, he found +himself in front of the organist at the table, he felt suddenly +overwhelmed and tongue-tied with confusion. What! only +farmers and farmers’ wives round him—almost all those of +the village...? Even the miller’s wife was there, wearing +a hat like the wife of the Squire!—And the blacksmith +and the Voyt, with their dames—all giving the names of +those whose souls they wished remembered; some as many +as a score of them—all the family, and their fathers and +forefathers—And he ... what name could he give? His +own father, his mother—what names had they? Could he +tell? For whom, then, should his offering be made?... +“O my Jesus, my little Jesus!” he cried in his soul; but his +mouth remained wide open, and he stood there like a witling. +His heart was wrung with an agony of grief, he could +hardly draw his breath, and he felt so faint that he was +like to drop down as one dead. But he could not stay +there; the crowd shoved him aside into a corner, beneath the +holy water stoup: and, in order not to fall, he crouched +down with his head against the tin basin, while tears gushed +forth and fell, like the beads of some rosary of desolation. +It was in vain that he tried to keep them back; he was so +shaken, so unnerved in every limb, that he had not even +<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>the strength to clench his teeth and stand up. So he crept +into a corner out of sight, and wept abundant tears—the +bitter tears of a fatherless, motherless boy.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Mother, O Mother!” something within him was crying, +and tearing his heart to pieces.... He could not think +why each of the other lads had his father and his mother, +while he alone was without either—bereft—and how bereft—of +both!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Jesus, my Jesus!” he sobbed, crying out like a poor bird +strangling in a snare.... It was then that Kuba came +upon him and said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek, have you given in your Memorial offering?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not yet,” he returned; and, suddenly drying his eyes, he +forced his way back to the table. Yes: he would give +names. Did it concern anyone that he had no parents he +knew? If he had none, it was his own affair. If he was +a foundling, a foundling let him be.—He therefore took +heart, wiped his eyes, and boldly gave the names Josephine, +Marianna, Anthony—the first that occurred to him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He paid, took the change, and went with Kuba into the +church to pray and hear the priest read the names of his +dear departed!</p> + +<p class='c004'>A catafalque, bearing a coffin at its summit, had been +raised in the centre of the church. Round it many tapers +were burning, while the priest read aloud from the pulpit +an interminable list of names. Now and then he stopped, +and the whole congregation said the Paters, Aves, and +Credos that should relieve the souls of the faithful departed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek knelt down by the side of Kuba; the latter took out +a rosary, and counted thereon all the prayers which the priest +had recommended. Vitek too recited a few prayers; but +the monotonous sounds soon made him drowsy, and, worn +out by the heat of the place and his recent fit of tears, +he presently rested his head against Kuba and went to sleep.</p> + +<hr class='c012'> + +<p class='c004'>In the afternoon, all the Boryna family were present at +the Vespers which were sung once a year in the churchyard +<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>mortuary chapel. Antek and his family, the blacksmith +and his, Yuzka accompanied by Yagustynka, and Vitek, +and Kuba dragging himself in the rear, had come, determined +to make the most they could of All Souls’ Day.</p> + +<p class='c004'>As a man shuts his weary eyelids, and plunges into dark +unfathomable shadows, so evening was closing in; the wind +sounded with a dreary voice, long drawn out, and wafted +the odours of many a mouldering leaf, redolent with unpleasant +effluvia.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The country-side was serene, with the strange and sombre +calm of that anniversary of sadness. The crowds went +about their way—as it were, in painful silence; their trampling +boots echoed with dull dead sounds: the roadside trees +waved their boughs restlessly, and swayed overhead with a +sad sullen murmur.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In front of the lich-gate and about the graves along the +wall, stood rows of barrels, and many a <i>Dziad</i> was close +by. It was by this road that the people came along to +the burial-ground. The twilight had already covered the +world, sprinkling it with its ashen greyness, although there +twinkled athwart its folds many a rustic lamp (fed with +butter for oil!), with yellow flickering flame. Each one, +on entering the churchyard, took from his wallet either +bread, or cheese, or a piece of bacon or of sausage; or a +skein of thread, or else a handful of combed flax; sometimes +even a string of dried mushrooms. These they deposited +piously in one of the barrels that stood open there; they +formed offerings for the priest, for the sacristan Ambrose, +for the organist—and, lastly, for the <i>Dziads</i>. Such as had +no offerings in kind to give, put a few kopeks into the outstretched +hands of the latter, whispering the names of the +dead for whom they asked them to intercede.</p> + +<p class='c004'>About the lich-gate, then, there was a continuous cadence +of names called out, and prayers, and chants, in broken and +unequal rhythm. The people went on and soon disappeared, +vanishing among the graves. Presently, like so +many glow-worms, tiny lights began to shine and tremble +in the dusky thickets and the dry grass.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>Breaking the stillness, which, as it were, exhaled from out +of the earth, prayers were everywhere audible, in low quavering +tones of awe. Now and again there would come from +some grave a heart-broken sigh; sometimes a thrilling lament +would rise from the winding paths around the crosses; +and then a sudden short shriek of despair would burst forth, +rending the air like a flash of lightning; or the faint weeping +of children would be heard among the murky bushes, +like the chirping of unfledged birds in their nests.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From time to time, there would creep over the churchyard +a dull and dreary silence, when only the trees were audible, +murmuring ominously, as the sound of human miseries and +sorrows and clamorous agony floated up to Heaven.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They went about the graves noiselessly, and terror-struck +they stared into the dim and unknown distance.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All must die!” they muttered, in tones of torpid palsy-stricken +resignation, and went on further, to sit by the +graves of their fathers, and either recite orisons, or remain +motionless, in a reverie that deadened both love of life +and fear of death—aye, and even abhorrence of pain. +They were like trees, bowing low in the blast; and, like +them, their souls quivered slumberously: dismayed, yet +benumbed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O my Jesus! O merciful Lord! O Mary!”—such were +the ejaculations which burst forth from their tormented +souls. They raised their faces—now expressionless with +grief—and fixed their hollow eyes on the crosses, and on +those trees in drowsy yet perpetual motion: and falling on +their knees at the feet of the crucified Christ, they laid before +Him their fear-stricken hearts, and shed tears of resignation +and self-surrender.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba went with Vitek in the same direction; but when it +became quite dark, the former crawled further on—away to +the old burial-ground. There the forgotten ones lay—those +whose very memory had perished long ago, with their days, +and the times they lived in, and all the past. There, only +ill-omened birds uttered hoarse croakings, and the bushes +rustled mournfully near some cross of rotting wood that still +<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>remained standing here and there. In this forgotten nook +lay side by side whole families, hamlets, generations: no +one came there to pray, to shed tears, to light lamps any +more. The gale alone blew fiercely through the boughs, +tore off the last of their leaves, and tossed them away into +the night, to be lost therein. And voices howled that were +not voices; and shadows moved—but were they only shadows?—striking +at random against the trees, as though they +had been blinded birds, and seeming to moan and beg for +pity!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba took from his bosom several pieces of bread that he +had put by. Kneeling down, he broke them, and threw the +morsels about among the tombs.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Food for you there is, O Christian soul!” he whispered, +very earnestly. “I forget you not at eventide.—Food for +you, O sufferer that was mortal!—Food for you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And will they take it?” Vitek asked in terror.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Beyond doubt!—Our priest forbids it.<a id='r19'></a><a href='#f19' class='c002'><sup>[19]</sup></a>—The others put +the food into those barrels, and these poor creatures get +nothing. But what? Shall the priest’s and the <i>Dziads’</i> +swine have to eat, and Christian ghosts stray starving!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! will they come hither?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yea, all who suffer the cleansing fires—all. Jesus lets +them back to earth for to-day, to visit their people.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To visit them!” Vitek repeated, shuddering.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fear not. On this day, nothing evil has any power to +harm: the Memorial offerings have driven him away—him, +the bad Angel! So have the lamps. And our Lord comes +in person about the world, and He, the beloved Shepherd, +goes counting how many souls are His yet, and choosing +from amongst them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, does our Lord Jesus come to the earth to-day?” +Vitek said faintly, looking around.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>“Do you think to see Him? That only Saints can do—and +persons greatly wronged.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“See, see, lights are there; and there are people too,” +Vitek cried out in alarm, and he pointed to a long row +of graves close to the hedge.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, there lie those slain during our insurrection. Yes, +my master lies there; aye, and my mother too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They forced their way through the underwood, and knelt +down by the graves. These had fallen in, and were so level +with the rest of the ground that they could hardly be traced. +They were marked by no crosses, overshadowed by no trees. +Only barren sand was there, and a few dry stalks of mullein: +all was stillness, oblivion, death.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose, together with Yagustynka and old Klemba, +were kneeling beside those perishing graves. A few lamps +glimmered, fixed in the sand; the winds made them wave +and tremble, and carried away the supplications into the +blackness of the night.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye; there lies my mother,” Kuba said, rather to himself +than to the boy, who had crept close to him, chilled to the +very marrow.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Magdalena was her name. My father had land of his +own: he served as coachman to the manor, but never drove +out, save with the old Squire, and stallions to the coach!... +After that, he died.... His uncle inherited the land, +and I became swineherd to the manor.... Yes, Magdalena +was my mother’s, and Peter, my father’s name: surname, +Soha, and I bear it.... Then the Squire set to +making me coachman, to drive with his stallions, as my +father had done.... I was continually going to the chase, +with Master and other gentlemen; and I learned to shoot +pretty well myself; and the son of the Squire gave me a +gun....</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I remember perfectly.... When they all went out for +the insurrection, they took me with them too.... I fought +for a whole year: killed more than one Russian grey dog +... more than two, even.... Then the Squire’s son was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>shot in the belly. His bowels gushed out. He was my master, +and a good man; so I took him on my shoulders and +carried him away.... Later, he got off somewhere to a +warm country, but first gave me a letter to take to his father. +Well, I went. I was weary of all, dog-tired ... got shot +in the leg on my way, and it would not heal; for I was always +out of doors, sleeping under the stars.... Then came +snow, and a terrible frost:—I remember well!... So I got +there ... at night ... and looked about for the place.—Oh, +what a thunderstroke!—No more manor—no more +barns—no more hedges, even. All had been burned down +to the ground.... And the old Squire ... and his lady +... and my mother too ... and also the girl Yosefka, +who was chambermaid there ... all lay in the garden, +slaughtered!—O Jesus! Jesus!—Aye, I remember.—O holy +Mary!” These last words he uttered very low; great tears +that he did not care to hide ran down his cheeks in floods, +and he heaved deep sighs, as that night rose again before +him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The darkness grew more and more intense; the blast +caught more and more fiercely at the trees; the long tresses +of the birch-boughs thrashed the graves about them, and +their trunks, white as sheeted ghosts, loomed dimly through +the gloom. The folk were leaving the place, the lamps going +out, the hymns of the <i>Dziads</i> dying away. A solemn +silence, disturbed only by weird rustlings and thrilling +whispers, now reigned among the tombs. The graveyard +seemed filled with shadowy forms, the bushes bore questionable +shapes; there were melodies of lulled soft moans, oceans +of eerie tremors, movements of shapeless things in the dark, +bursts of dread hushed sobs, mysterious and horror-breathing +alarms which made the heart sink. Throughout +the village, the very dogs were howling with long despairing +howls.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On this holiday alone, Lipka was hushed. The roads +were deserted, the inn-doors closed. Through the tiny mist-blurred +window-panes of a few huts, lights were seen to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>shine, and holy hymns heard to quaver timidly forth, with +loud supplications to God for the souls of the faithful +departed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Outside the cabins, the folk glided about in fear; in fear +did they listen to the quiet sighs of the trees; in fear did +they look towards the window, lest there should appear to +them one of those who, on this day, wander by God’s decree +and their own yearning—lest they should be heard +lamenting where four roads meet—or be seen looking sorrowfully +in through the window.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Outside certain huts, the husbandmen—following ancient +customs—set the remains of the evening meal for the hungry +ghosts to partake of and, crossing themselves, breathed some +such invitation: “O Christian soul that still abidest in the +place of cleansing, lo! here is refreshment for thee!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And thus, in stillness and sadness, amidst memories and +fears, did the evening of All Souls’ Day come to an end.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On Antek’s side of his father’s cabin sat Roch, the pilgrim +to our Lord’s sepulchre, reading and telling many a +pious and holy legend.</p> + +<p class='c004'>People were there not a few: for both Ambrose and Yagustynka +and Klemba had come, Kuba and Vitek, Yuzka +and Nastusia: the only one absent was old Boryna, who remained +at Yagna’s till late in the night.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Save for the crickets that cried and the pine-knots that +crackled on the hearth or in the fire, the cabin was still as +death.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They all were sitting on benches round the fire; Antek +alone sat looking out of the window. Roch now and then +drew the red embers together with his staff, while he spoke +thus, in a soft hushed voice:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is not terrible to die.—Oh, no!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As birds in winter fly to a warmer land, so do our weary +little souls long to fly to Jesus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Though the trees stand bare in winter, yet are they +clothed in spring by the Lord with green leaves and scented +blossoms: thus, O thou soul of man, dost thou go to Jesus +<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>to find with Him joy, and spring, and gladness, and vesture +eternal!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As the sun caresses our weary earth, fatigued with fruit-bearing, +so doth our Lord caress each soul, and make it +forget the past winter of anguish and death.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah me! for in this world there is naught but trouble, +and wailing, and woe!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And evil increases and multiplies, as doth the thistle +in the woodlands!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All things are vain and to no purpose ... like tinder-wood, +and like the bubbles which the wind maketh on the +water and driveth away.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And there is no faith, nor hope, save in God alone!”</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>“I speak of this, both from the pulpit, and to every +man in particular....”—The wind put an end to +the rest of the sentence by blowing violently down the +priest’s throat, making him fall into a fit of coughing. Antek +was silent.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The gale was growing fiercer, sweeping down the road, +lashing the poplars, storming through them, and causing +them to bend and moan and shriek aloud with rage.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Man, I have told you,” the priest went on to say, “that +I myself took the mare down to the pond.... Blind as +she is, she may go astray in some coppice, and perhaps +break a leg.”—The very thought made him turn pale, and +he continued looking under every tree, and seeking in every +field.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, but she always went about freely.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She knows well her way to the pond. Anyone might find +a pail for her to drink from, and then turn her round: she +would have come back by herself.... Valek!” he suddenly +cried, thinking he saw someone among the poplars.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I saw Valek on our side of the pond; but that was before +twilight set in.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Gone perhaps to look for her: a little too late!... A +mare twenty years old! She was foaled soon after I came +here, and deserves to be fed for mercy’s sake.... As much +attached as any man can be.... Good Heavens! if any +harm should have befallen the poor beast!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What on earth can happen?” Antek growled, in a surly +mood. He had come to his Reverence to complain and +get counsel; and he had been, not only reprimanded, but +asked to seek the lost mare besides! No doubt the mare, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>so old and blind, deserved pity; but ought not a fellow-man +to come first?</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As to you, you are to master yourself; do you hear? +And curse him not! he is your father!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, that,” said Antek very bitterly, “that I know well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It were a grievous sin and offence against God. And no +blessing will there be for him that in anger raises his hand +against his father, to break the commandment!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I want justice: no more.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, ’tis revenge you seek.... Am I wrong?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek was at a loss for an answer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now I will tell you one thing more: ‘A docile calf, beyond +all doubt, thrives, sucks much milk, and waxes stout.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘Docile!’ The word sticks in my throat, I have so much +of it. Shall I allow a man to do me every wrong in the +world, simply because he is my father? Are children forbidden +to seek justice for the wrong done?—Good God! if +that’s the order of things, I had as lief bid it farewell, and +go anywhere to get away from it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go, then; what is it prevents you?” cried the priest, +taking fire on a sudden.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well may I go: what—what is there left to me here +now?” he muttered, almost in tears.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are simply talking nonsense. Others have not one +bit of land: yet they stay on, and work, and thank God +that they have work to do. You had far better settle down +to do something, and not complain like a woman. You +are strong and able, and have something to lay your hands +to besides....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, indeed; three whole acres!” was the ironical reply.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And a wife and child, who belong to you too: do not forget +it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were now in front of the tavern; the windows were +all aglow, and from the road where they stood they could +hear voices inside.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What! another drunken bout?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“’Tis the recruits who were chosen during the summer, +drinking to keep their spirits up. Next Sunday the Russians +<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>will take them away to somewhere at the back of the +world: so they are seeking comfort.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The priest had taken his stand near the poplars, from +where he could look through the window, and see how +thronged the place was. “Why, the tavern is well-nigh +full!” he exclaimed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They were to have a meeting and advise together to-day, +about the forest clearing which the Squire has sold to +the Jews.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But he has sold only the half.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Till we have agreed to the sale, not one bush shall be +sold!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What do you say?” the priest inquired, in a tone of +anxiety.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We don’t give leave: that’s flat. Father would go to +law; but Klemba and the others with him won’t have it. +They forbid a single tree to be cut down; and if the whole +village has to rise, rise they will—aye, and ax in hand, too. +What is theirs, they never will give up.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Merciful heavens! Pray God there may be no violence!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, no! only a few of the manor-folks’ heads split in +two: that will be but justice!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Antek! has anger made you mad? My good fellow, this +is senseless talk!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He would not listen, but turned on his heels and vanished +in the gathering dusk; while the priest, who heard the rumble +of wheels and a mare’s whinny, hastened back to his +dwelling.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek passed by the mill on the other side, wanting to +avoid going near Yagna’s hut.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She was fast in his bosom: a festering wound of which +he could not rid himself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Afar, the light shone bright from within her cabin. In +there it was joyful. He stopped to look once more, were it +but to curse her in his rage. And suddenly something fell +on him like a hurricane, and tore him away.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She is my father’s now!—My father’s!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>He went round to his brother-in-law, the smith, though +expecting no advice from the man, and only wanting to remain +a short time away from his father’s dwelling, and in +somebody’s company.—Ah! the priest would preach work to +him, would he? Preaching to others was an easy thing +for those who have nothing to trouble them!—“Remember +your wife and child!”—Was he likely to forget them? Her! +... whom he loathed so, with her wailing and her meekness +and wistfully glancing eyes! Were it not for her ... were +he but single!—O Lord! He groaned deeply; a wild fit of +anger swept over him, and he would have liked to take +someone by the throat—strangle him—tear him to +pieces!...</p> + +<p class='c004'>But whom? He knew not. His fury passed away as +suddenly as it had come. He looked blankly out into the +night and hearkened to the whistling blasts. Then he +walked on, trudging heavily, scarce able to drag himself; +for now he felt weighed down by a mountain of sorrow, +lassitude, and such a sense of prostration that he no longer +knew whither he was going, nor for what purpose.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna is my father’s—my father’s!” he repeated again +and again, each time in a lower key.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the smith’s shop, a boy was working the bellows with +might and main, and the draught that poured on to the flaring +roaring embers made them burst into blood-red flames. +The smith stood at the anvil, grimy-faced, girt with a +leather apron, his arms bare, his cap on the back of his head, +beating a red-hot iron bar till the anvil resounded, while +showers of sparks flew from beneath the hammer, and fell +hissing into the moist ground of the forge.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well?” he asked, after waiting a moment.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, what?” Antek mumbled, leaning against a basket-wagon +frame, several of which were standing by to have +their iron-work repaired; and he gazed into the fire.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The smith went on, working hard at the incandescent +iron, and beat away, keeping time as he smote upon the anvil +with his hammer; or, when a yet more powerful blast +<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>was needed, helping the boy to blow; but ever and anon +stealing a glance at Antek, while a malicious smile peeped +from under his red moustache.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, so you have been to his Reverence again: and +what has come of it?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And what should come? Nothing. I might have heard +just the same in church.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What else did you think to get?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, he knows a great deal,” Antek replied in self-defence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As to taking, yes; as to giving, no.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek was in no mood to contradict him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am going to your cabin,” he said after a pause.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Go; I shall join you at once, for the Voyt is to be here. +You will find tobacco on the top of the press: help yourself.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek had not so much as heard him, as he made straight +for the house which stood opposite.</p> + +<p class='c004'>His sister was kindling the fire, and her eldest boy, at +the table, learning out of a spelling-book.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is he studying?” he asked; for the boy spelt aloud, +pointing to each letter with a sharp stick.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes. He began at potato-digging-time. The young +lady from the mill is teaching him, for my husband is too +busy.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Roch, too, began teaching on Father’s side of our cabin +yesterday.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I wanted to send our Johnny to him, too: but Michael +will not have it. He says she knows more, because she +has been at school in Warsaw.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, yes. Yes,” he answered, in order to say something.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Johnny gets on so fast with his primer that the young +lady is astonished.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, of course. It’s the smith’s blood, you see—being +the son of so clever a man....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are jeering. And yet was he not right to tell you +that Father can, so long as he lives, withdraw any settlement +made?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>“Aye, try to snatch its prey from out of the wolf’s +mouth!... Six acres of land! My wife and I are both +as good as his farm-servants; and see, he settles the land +on the first strange woman he comes across!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You will wrangle, and fall foul of him, and ask for +advice against him; and the end will be that he will drive +you from his house into the bargain!” She spoke thus, +looking timorously towards the door.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who told you that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hush, hush! That’s what people are saying.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He shall not! Let him get me out by force, if he can! +I’ll go to law. But as to giving way, never, never!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, you’ll butt your head against a stone wall, like a +ram, but never get it smashed, eh?” the smith said, coming +in.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then what’s to be done? You give clever advice to +everybody; advise me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It will never do to run counter to the old man’s will.” +He lit a pipe, and set about explaining matters, excusing +Boryna, and smoothing things over, till all at once Antek +saw his drift, and cried out:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You—you are on his side!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I want to be fair.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have been well paid for this.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not out of your pocket, at all events.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My property is not yours to give up in my place. You +no doubt have had a good instalment already, and are in +no hurry to get more.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have had no more than you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, no more? And what about your share of the cow? +And all the pieces of linen, and odds and ends you have +sneaked out of Father? Have I forgotten the geese, and the +young pigs ... and ... and ... there’s no end of +them! Ah, and the calf he gave you the other day? Is +that nothing?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You might have got it just as well as I.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am not a gipsy, nor a thief!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>“A thief! Do you call me that?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They both rushed forward, ready to spring at each other. +But they stopped, for Antek went on more calmly:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I was not speaking of you. But never will I abandon +my rights, even to be saved from utter ruin.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The smith interposed, with a jeer: “It is not the land, I +fancy, for which you would go to such lengths.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For what then?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is Yagna you want, and rage to lose her now!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Did you ever see...?” he cried; the shot had hit the +mark.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There be those who have seen ... and not once only.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May their eyes drop out of the sockets!” But he said +this curse very low; for just then the Voyt entered the +room. Probably he too was aware of the reason why they +quarrelled, for he at once set to justifying and defending +the old man’s behaviour.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That you stand up for him is no wonder: he has given +you drink and sausages in plenty!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No careless talk, pray; I, the Voyt, am speaking to you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For your Voytship I care as I care for this broken stick!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What!—what has the man said?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have heard; and if not, you shall hear other things +which will go yet farther.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Say them, then, if you dare!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I will.—Behold, you are a drunkard, a Judas, a dissembler; +one that squanders in revels the money the village has +entrusted to him, and takes abundant pay from the manor, +to let the Squire sell our forest land.... Will ye I say +more?” he added furiously, snatching at a stick. “So I +will, but with this cudgel, not with my tongue.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take care you rue not what you are doing, Antek; I am +a man in office!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And do not fly at anyone under my roof! This is no +tavern!” the smith shouted, placing himself in front of the +Voyt. But Antek, now wrought up to exasperation, poured +a volley of abuse on them both, slammed the door, and left +them.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>“Now,” he was saying to himself, while breakfasting the +next day, “now they will all be against me!” when, to his +stupefaction, he saw the blacksmith come in. They met +on their usual terms.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When Antek went to the barn afterwards to chop straw, +the smith followed him, and said in confidential tones:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll be hanged if I know why we quarrelled ... some +silly word dropped, belike. So I am first to come to you +and shake hands.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek shook hands indeed, but grunted, with a look of +mistrust:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, some hasty words passed between us; but I felt no +grudge against you. That Voyt made me frantic.... Let +him mind his own business, and keep himself to himself, +or....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So I told him, when he wanted to follow you out....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To fight me?—I would have given him such a dressing as +I gave his cousin, who has been smashed up ever since +harvest-time!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of that, too, did I remind him,” the smith observed, +with a demure look and a sly leer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I will settle with him yet ... with that great man, +that Jack in office! He will remember me!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He is not worth your notice: let him be.—I have had an +idea, and have come now to tell you about it. This is what +we have to do.... This afternoon my wife will come here. +You will go with her to old Boryna, and talk the matter +over thoroughly.... Of what use is complaining in holes +and corners? Speak your mind out to him face to face. +Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps not; but at all events +we shall have threshed the matter out.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But what is to be done, now the settlement has been +made?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You see, by wrangling we shall get nothing at all. Yes, +he has made it. But, so long as he lives, he has the power to +revoke it. Do you understand? That is the reason why +we must not irritate him. He wants to marry: well, let +him. And to enjoy himself: why not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>At the mention of marriage, Antek turned white, and +shook so that he paused in his work.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do not oppose him openly. Approve him. Say he +was right to make the settlement, since he chose to do so: +only ask him to promise us the rest—that is, to you and +me, and in presence of witnesses,” he added, with a sly +after-thought.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, but what of Yuzka, what of Gregory?” Antek inquired +reluctantly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They shall get money instead. Gregory has been receiving +not a little every month, ever since he has been in +the army.—But just listen, and do as I tell you; you will +not regret it. My management of things will make all the +land ours in the end, my life on it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘To sew the sheep’s skin do not strive, furrier, while +the sheep’s alive.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Listen—Let him but make a promise in presence of +witnesses: we shall then have something to lay hold on. +We can still fall back on the courts of justice. And there +is another point besides: the land he got as your mother’s +dowry.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A great thing, forsooth: four acres for me and your +sister ... four whole acres!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But these he has not given to either; and for so many +years he has sown therein and garnered therefrom! For +these he must pay you well, aye, and with percentage too!... +I tell you once more: oppose the old man in nothing. +Go to the wedding; do not grudge him fair words. We shall +manage him, you will see. And if he is after all unwilling +to give the promise, the law may then come in and force +him. You are on very familiar terms with Yagna, and she +may be very useful to you: only speak of this to her. No +one could better succeed in bringing the old man round.—Well, +is it agreed? For I must be stirring.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Agreed!—That you get out quick, or I will smite you in +the face and drive you out of doors!” Antek hissed through +his clenched teeth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What ... what has come over you?” the blacksmith +<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>stammered, appalled by the looks of the other, who dropped +the straw-cutter and came on, with eyes terribly gleaming +and face as pale as a sheet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Thief! carrion! traitor!” He spat the words out, his +mouth was foaming with hate as he advanced, and the +smith fairly ran for it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Has the man lost his wits?” he said, as soon as he was +out in the road. “I was giving him good counsel ... and +he—Oh, that’s your game, is it? You would have struck +me, driven me out, because I wanted to share the land with +you, and came to you as to a friend and a brother! Is that +your game ... to have all to yourself? Ha! you will not +live to see the day, my man! Though you wormed my +thoughts out of me so cleverly, I will give you such a shaking, +the worst ague will be nothing beside it!” He grew +angrier and still more angry, as he reflected that Antek had +taken him in so, and would inform old Boryna of all this +intrigue.—The very thing he feared most of all!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But that must at once be prevented!” He swiftly came +to a decision, and though in bodily fear of Antek, went back +to Boryna’s.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is your master at home?” he asked Vitek, who was opposite +the house, throwing pebbles at the geese in the pond +to make them land.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Over there at the miller’s: gone to invite their people to +his wedding.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall go that way: perhaps we may meet,” he thought, +and made for the miller’s; but he went home first, and told +his wife to dress her best, take the children with her, and +go round to Antek’s at the first stroke of the noonday +Angelus.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He will tell you what to do.... Do nothing by yourself, +for you are not clever; only fall a-crying at the right +time, embrace your father’s knees and beseech him, and all +that. But give good heed to what Antek shall say and your +father reply.” And so he went on instructing her for some +time.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now I shall look in at the mill: perhaps our meal is +<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>ground.” He was too uneasy to stay any longer in the +house and, going out, walked on slowly, often halting to +consider.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The man threatened me; yet he’ll do as I told him, I +think. Better my wife should be there, and not I.—What +else can he do but what I say?—Quarrel—and be expelled!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He smiled in triumph, set his cap straight and buttoned +up his capote, for a chill piercing wind came from the pond.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There will be frost, surely, or else dirty weather,” he +predicted, standing on the bridge and looking into the sky, +where a scud of driven clouds was passing, not unlike a +flock of muddy unwashed sheep. The pond uttered a low +murmur, now and then beating upon its shores, along which, +scattered about amongst blackened drooping alders and +weeping willows, the outlines of women washing linen appeared, +traced in red, and the obstreperous clatter of their +bats rose on either bank. The roads were empty, save for +the numerous flocks of geese, soiled with stiffening mire, that +were waddling in and out of the ditches, now filled up with +dead leaves and rubbish. Children outside the houses +squealed and screamed; and the cocks crowed in the hedges—weather-prophets +telling of a change.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Better wait for him at the mill!” he growled and walked +down the slope.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek, when the smith left him, had set to chopping straw +so frantically that he forgot everything but his work; and +Kuba, returning from the wood, cried out aloud:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Mercy! there will be enough of it for a week’s fodder!” +And then Antek woke up from his musings, threw the straw-cutter +aside, stretched himself, and went into the hut.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What must be will be,” he reflected, “and I must speak +to my father this day.—That blacksmith fellow is a lying +traitor; his advice may be good, for all that. Nay, there +must be something in it.” He peeped in at his father’s +door, and at once drew back; a score of urchins were sitting +there. Roch was teaching them, and paying great +heed to their behaviour; going round with beads in hand, +hearing their lessons, correcting them at times; at others +<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>pulling one boy’s ear or patting another’s head, but for the +most part sitting patiently and explaining the printed matter, +or putting questions, which the children hastened to +answer in chorus as fast as they could, gobbling like a troop +of little turkeys when excited.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka was getting dinner ready, and having a talk with +her father, old Bylitsa, who seldom came, because he was +always ailing and could hardly move about.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He sat close to the window, his chin and hands on his +staff; hoary-headed, with a twitch of the lips and a treble +voice like a bird’s, accompanied by thin wheezing sounds in +the windpipe.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Have you breakfasted?” she inquired.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“To say true, Veronka forgot me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, she even starves her dogs! they often come to me +for food,” she cried. Her elder sister and she had been on +bad terms ever since last winter, when their mother had +died, and Veronka seized on all she had left, refusing to +give anything up; which had estranged them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He took her part in a feeble voice. “They have not too +much for themselves. Staho threshes at the organist’s, +where he gets food and a score of kopeks daily besides. +And there are many mouths to feed in the cabin: the potato-patch +cannot suffice for all. True, they have a couple of +milch-cows and take butter and cheese to town, and get a +few coppers; but she often forgets to give me my meals. +Yet I do not want much ... only a little every day, and +at the right hour....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then come to us in spring, since you are so ill off with +that jade!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I make no complaint, no fuss; only....” His +voice died into silence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“With us, you could tend the geese, and see to the +children.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hanka,” he said under his breath, “there is nothing that +I would not do.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There is room for you here; I should put up a bed for +you and make you cosy.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>“Oh, if I could but be with you, Hanka, and never go +back to them, I would sleep in the cow-house or the stable,” +he answered in a husky beseeching voice. “They took my +feather-bed from me; she says the children have nothing +to sleep on. It is true that they were cold, so I had them +with me. But my sheepskin is all torn, and does not keep +me warm at all; and where I sleep there is no fire, and she +will not let me have any wood, and counts every spoonful +that I eat, and sends me out a-begging, and I am so weak +I can scarcely crawl to your house.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Good God! and you never told me this was so!—Why?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How could I? she is my daughter!—And he is a good-hearted +man, but very little in the house.—How could I?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She is a hag! She took half the land and half the +cabin, and the other things.... So that’s the board and +lodgings she promised to give you! We must go to law: +they were bound to let you have food and firing, and clothing +too.—And we were to give twelve roubles a year: have +we not kept our promise, say?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Surely! For you are upright folk.—But those few <i>zloty</i> +that I have saved for my burial—I had to give them up too, +I could not help it.” He said no more but sat crouching +in his place, more like a heap of rags than a human being.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After dinner, when the smith’s wife came with her children +and greeted Hanka, the old man took up a bundle prepared +for him by his daughter, and vanished unnoticed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna had not come home to dine.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The smith’s wife was determined to see him, nevertheless, +though she should have to wait till nightfall. Hanka had +set up a loom near the window, where she set to work, +drawing the woof of hempen thread across the warp assiduously, +and but seldom and timidly taking part in the talk +between Antek and his sister. His conversation with her +about their grievances did not last long, however; for Yagustynka +dropped in, saying in a casual tone:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I have just come here from the organist’s, where they +need me for the washing. Matthias was there only just +now, together with Yagna, to invite them to the wedding. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>They are coming. Yes, everyone to his people: the rich to +the rich. They have asked the priest also.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What! have they dared His Reverence!” Hanka +exclaimed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is he, then, so sacred a being? They asked him, and he +said he might possibly come. Why not? Is the girl ill-looking? +will the food be bad? and will there be little to +drink? The miller and wife and daughter have promised. +Ho, ho! There will not have been such a wedding since +Lipka was Lipka!—I know, for I shall be cooking with +Eva—her from the miller’s. Ambrose has killed a pig +for them, and sausages are making now...” She broke +off abruptly, noticing that no one asked any questions, or +spoke at all. She looked round at them as they sat gloomily +there, and, eyeing them attentively, cried out:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I say! there is a storm brewing here!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Storm or no storm, what is that to you?” the smith’s +wife answered, so tartly that Yagustynka was offended, rose, +and went over to Yuzka in the other lodgings, who (the +children having just departed) was setting chairs and benches +in order.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Father is not likely to grudge himself anything,” the +smith’s wife remarked, in an aggrieved tone.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, he can well afford it!” Hanka rejoined, and broke +off abruptly, seeing Antek look fiercely at her.—They sat +waiting in almost complete silence. From time to time a +word was said; then that dull, crushing, ominous speechlessness +came over them once more.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He must have cash enough: he is always selling things, +and never spending.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek’s only rejoinder to his sister’s words was a wave of +the hand; and he went out of the room to get some fresh +air. He was feeling ever more and more uneasy; nor could +he tell why. He now expected his father, and felt impatient +at the delay, yet glad in his heart not to have met with +him yet.—“It is not the land you are angry about, it is +Yagna!”—Those words, uttered by the smith the day before, +now suddenly came back to him.—“He is a lying dog!” +<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>was the cry of rage which burst from his lips. And he set +to work at the outer wall which was to protect the hut +from the side of the court-yard. Vitek brought him litter +from the heap; Antek drove in the laths to form the wall, +and rammed the litter down inside it; but his hands were +trembling, he had to stop working more than once, and lean +against the cabin walls, and look out through the bare leafless +trees over the pond to Yagna’s hut.—No, it was not +love that was now growing within him, but anger and hatred +in numberless billows! She, the jade—she, the hateful +one!—They had thrown her a bone, and off she went +after it!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Such were his thoughts. But then there swept over him +remembrances coming up—whence, he knew not—laying +siege to his heart, clinging to his mind, even visible to his +senses ... and the sweat bedewed his brow, his eyes flashed, +a thrill ran through him.—Ah, there in the orchard! Ah, +then in the forest! And again, when they once were coming +from town together!</p> + +<p class='c004'>All at once he reeled; he again saw that burning face, +those deep-blue eyes, those wondrous full red lips; and he +heard her quick-drawn breaths of passion, and her voice, +low and husky with love and rapture, calling to him: “Antek! +Antek!” And she was again bending towards him, very +close—he felt her touch him with all her throbbing self!... +But he rubbed his eyes to drive away that too sweet phantom, +and his implacable resentment again oozed icily from +his heart, as the drops fall from the icicles under the eaves, +when the spring sun shines upon them, and love awakens +once more; within his soul, agonized yearning lifted her +thorn-crowned head once more—a yearning so bitter that +he would fain have eased it by clutching at any pain whatsoever, +or by shrieking to rouse the dead!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“May a brimstone thunderbolt strike her!” he cried out; +but, suddenly recollecting himself, he cast a sharp glance +round, fearing lest Vitek should have understood whom he +meant.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He had spent those three last weeks in a fever of expectancy, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>awaiting the happening of some miracle. As for +him, he could do nothing, prevent nothing!</p> + +<p class='c004'>And of late, insane thoughts had often surged up in his +mind, insane resolves. Often had he gone out to meet her, +and many a night had he watched outside her cabin, in +the rain and the cold. But she had not come out.—She +shunned him!</p> + +<p class='c004'>No, no, no! Every instant he grew more angry against +her, against the whole framework of things. She was his +father’s!—A strange woman, an adventuress, a thief who +had robbed him of his land, the most precious of all possessions! +Smite her he would—aye, beat the life out of her!</p> + +<p class='c004'>More than once he had determined to confront his father, +and tell him to his face: “You cannot have Yagna; she is +mine!” But the very thought made his hair stand on end.—What +would his father, what would all the village say?</p> + +<p class='c004'>So now she, that same Yagna, was to be his stepmother—his +mother ... of a sort! How could that be? Was it +not a sin, a most grievous one? He was afraid to think of +it: the thought of some awful judgment of God at hand +made his heart die within him.... And yet, to say nothing—to +bear all this within himself, as one bearing in his bosom +coals of fire that burned to the bone—that was beyond the +endurance of man!</p> + +<p class='c004'>And the wedding was but a week away!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Master is coming,” Vitek cried; and Antek felt he was +shaking with dismay.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was getting dark.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was getting cold, too; the ground was freezing, the +air eager and nipping, but clear as usual when a frost is +setting in, and wafting sound so well that the bellowing +and trampling of the cattle driven to water, the creaking +of the gates and bucket-dippers, the noises of the children +and the dogs, were all heard distinctly across the pond. +From some windows, there gleamed lights already, throwing +athwart the waters their long, broken, quivering reflections; +while, from behind the woods, the huge red full moon was +slowly ascending.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>Boryna, attentive to farm matters, came into the yard, +and rated Kuba and Vitek soundly for having let the calves +stray from their stalls and wander to the cows’ mangers; so, +when he entered the house, his visitors were awaiting him. +They said nothing, but just gave one glance, and looked +down, as he stopped short in the middle of the room, eyed +them, and asked scornfully:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All here? What, come to sit in judgment, hey?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, indeed,” the smith’s wife returned, timorously; “we +only come to you with a petition.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But why is your goodman not here?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He was very busy, and could not come.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aha! Busy ... yes.” He smiled knowingly, threw his +capote aside, and pulled off his boots. All remained tongue-tied +the while, uncertain how to begin. The smith’s wife +cleared her throat and drew her children closer; Hanka, on +the threshold, was suckling her little boy, and casting uneasy +looks at Antek, who sat by the window thinking what +he should say, and shaking all over with emotion. Yuzka +alone was calm, peeling potatoes by the fire-place.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, then, say what you have to say,” the old man +cried sharply, irritated by the silence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Better you, Antek, should speak first—about that settlement: +we shall follow,” the smith’s wife stammered.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The settlement? It is made, and the wedding is to be +on Sunday: that I can tell you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We know, but we came for another reason.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What is it?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have settled six whole acres!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I chose to: if I choose, I can settle everything on her, +and this instant!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You may, if all belongs to you,” Antek retorted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And whose else is it—whose?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Your children’s. Ours.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s nonsense. Mine the land is, and I can do with it +as I please.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Or not yours, and not to do as you please.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>“Will you prevent me—you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I shall ... we all shall; and if not, we have the law to +protect us.” He could no longer control himself, and was +raging.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! you do threaten me with the law, forsooth?—Hold +your peace ere I am angered, or you’ll rue it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Wrong us ye shall not!” cried Hanka in a loud voice, +rising to her feet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And what is’t she wants—she?—She brought us three +acres of sand, and one piece of canvas cloth: and she dares +wag her tongue here!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You have given Antek still less: not even the land, his +mother’s dowry; we are as your farm-labourers!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But in return for your work you get all that three of +my acres yield.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For work that is worth the yield of more than twenty.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If unfairly treated, go elsewhere and fare better.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here Antek shouted: “We will not! The land is ours, +come down from our grandsires and forefathers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Old Boryna glared at him, but answered nothing. He +seated himself by the fire and, taking up a poker, used it +on the brands till the sparks flew on every side. He was +flushed with passion; his hair again and again came tumbling +into his eyes, phosphorescent like a wildcat’s; but he +had some self-control still left.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A long pause ensued, and the stillness of the room was +broken only by the hurried breaths drawn there.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We have naught against your marrying; marry, if you +like.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And if you have aught, much difference will it make to +me!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Only revoke that settlement!” added Hanka, in tears.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, that peevish mother of dogs! Always chattering +like a fool!” And he poked the fire so furiously that the +sparks flew all about the room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Take heed! She is no wench of yours, that you should +speak such words to her!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>“Why should she prate, then?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“She has a right to speak!” Antek shouted; “she stands +up for what is our due.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If you will,” the smith’s wife murmured, “let the settlement +stand, but settle the rest of your property on us.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Look at that simpleton! Going to divide my land, eh? +No, I’ll never take board and lodgings from you.—I have +spoken.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We will not give in! We will have justice!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If I but take my stick to you, I’ll give you justice!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Try but to touch us!—You’d not live till the wedding!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now the squabble began in earnest; they rushed forwards, +threatening; they beat the table with their fists, they +shouted aloud all their grievances, all their injuries. Antek, +in his anger, forgot himself so far as again and again to +clutch his father by the shoulder, even by the throat, so +furious was he; but the old man was yet master of himself. +He wished to have no fight, and merely pushed him aside, +seldom replying to insults, and unwilling to have the whole +village taking part in his affairs. But the noise and confusion +in the room waxed louder and louder; for both the +women were weeping and pouring forth invectives alternately, +while the children screamed so that both Kuba and +Vitek came round from the farm-yard and peeped in at the +window.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hanka, leaning against the chimney penthouse, here +burst into a torrent of tears and words:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, we shall have to go out into the world and beg +our bread! O Lord, good Lord!... we that have toiled +like oxen!... What have we now of our labour?... +Ah, God will avenge this wrong of ours!... His judgment +will be upon you!... Six whole acres settled—and +mother’s clothing and beads given away ... everything! +And to whom, great God?... To that swine!... Oh! +wanton and harlot as you are! For the wrong you are +doing us, may you end in a ditch some day!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What do you say?” the old man shrieked, darting furiously +towards her.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>“That she is a harlot and a wanton—as all the village and +all the world knows!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Woe betide you! I’ll beat your foul mouth to pulp!” +He seized and shook her; but Antek leaped forwards to +protect her, and shouted in his turn:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And I say it too: she is a wanton, a harlot, and anyone +may know her that cares!”—But he said no more. Boryna, +in a paroxysm of rage, struck him such a blow in the face +that he fell with his head breaking the pane of a glazed +press, which he brought to the floor with him. Springing +up instantly, streaming with blood, he charged his father.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They both rushed at each other like mad dogs, with a +mutual clutch, driving and being driven backward and +forward about the room, pushing and hurling one another +against the bed, the great trunk, the walls, till their heads +rang again. A horrible outcry arose: the womenfolk tried +to separate them, but they rolled down upon the floor, so +closely gripped in hatred that they turned over and over, +each strangling each, each crushing the other, as best +he could.</p> + +<p class='c004'>By great good fortune, the neighbours ran in while it +was time, and separated them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek was hustled away to the other lodgings, and water +dashed over him; he was faint with exhaustion caused by +loss of blood, for the glass had gashed him very deep.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The old man had no hurt at all; only a slight tear in +the short jacket he wore, and a few scratches on his face, +that was livid with rage.... He swore at the folk who +had come, shut the front door on them, and sat down by +the fire.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But nothing could avail to calm him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He could not put out of his memory the words uttered +about Yagna: they stabbed him like a knife.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That hound! I will never forgive him, never!” was the +oath he then swore to himself. “My Yagna! how could +he?”—But then he recalled what he had heard said of her +in former times and disregarded. He turned hot, he felt +as if he were choking, and a wretched sense of dejection +<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>came over him. How, if his own son said such things, were +people’s mouths to be stopped? Oh, that villain! The +very recollection of those words burned him like fire.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After Yuzka had cleaned away all the traces of the +struggle, and given him his supper, though late, he attempted +to eat, but could not, and laid his spoon down. “Have +you given the horses their provender?” he inquired of Kuba.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of course.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek—where is he?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Gone for Ambrose, to see to Antek’s head. His face is +swollen like a pipkin,” he added, hurrying out; for he had +chosen this moonlight night to go out shooting.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“‘When dogs have too much bread, each flies at t’other’s +head,’” he grunted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The old man stumped down into the village, but refrained +from visiting Yagna, though the light was gleaming bright +from her window. He turned away just outside her door, +and went round to the mill. It was a chilly star-besprinkled +night, and so clear that the whole mill-pond shone like +glittering quicksilver. Over the deserted roads the trees +cast long swaying shadows. It was late; they were putting +the lights out in the houses, whose whitewashed walls now +stood out more distinctly among the skeleton orchard trees. +Silence and darkness had swallowed up all the hamlet: only +the mill-wheel and the water clattered and babbled monotonously. +Matthias walked on, crossing to the other side. +As he went, his anger grew stronger, together with his +hatred. When he got to the tavern, he sent for the Voyt, +and they both drank till midnight. He could not, however, +drown the gnawing pain within him. Only he then +registered a resolve.</p> + +<p class='c004'>No sooner had he risen the next morning than he went +round to the other lodgings. Antek was in bed, his face +bandaged with a bloodstained rag.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Get out of my home this instant!” he said, “and let no +trace of you remain! If you want war, if you will go to +law, then do so; bring an action, and get back your property! +What you have sown of your own grain, you may +<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>reap, when summer comes. And now, away with you! Let +me set eyes on you no more! Do you hear?” he roared. +Antek set about dressing slowly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“By noon, you will have to be off!” he added, calling out +to them from the passage.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek remained as dumb as though he had not heard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka, call Kuba: let him put the mare to the cart, and +take them whither they want to go!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But there is something the matter with Kuba. He lies +groaning on his pallet, and says he cannot rise at all, his +lame leg hurts him so.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A sluggard, who only wants to lie abed!” And Boryna +saw to the farm-duties by himself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba nevertheless was seriously ill, but would not say +what the matter was with him, though pressed by his master. +As he lay, he uttered such groans that the horses came up +to him, sniffed at his face and licked it, while Vitek brought +him water in a pail, and secretly washed certain blood-smirched +rags in the river.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna, intent as he was on the departure of Antek and +his family, noticed nothing of all this.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They departed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Without clamour or disturbance, they packed everything, +carried their belongings out, and made up their bundles; +Hanka well-nigh swooning with distress; Antek refreshing +her with drinks of water and hurrying her on, that they +might be away—out of that father’s house—as quickly as +ever they could.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He would take no horse from his father, but borrowed +one from Klemba, and took everything over to Hanka’s +parent, at the very end of the village and beyond the +tavern.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Several peasants had come in from the hamlet, along with +Roch as their leader, desirous of reconciling them; but to +this neither father nor son would agree.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No,” said the old man; “let him try how he will enjoy +his freedom, and bread of his own!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Antek answered no word to their solicitations; but, lifting +<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>his fist, he uttered such horrible maledictions that Roch +turned pale and withdrew amongst the women, who were in +numbers about the premises; partly to assist Hanka, but for +the most part to air grievances aloud, and babble, and +give advice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When Yuzka, all in tears, gave dinner to her father and +Roch, her brother and his family were off the place, together +with all they had. Antek never even looked back at +his hut; he only crossed himself, heaving a deep sigh; and +whipping up the horse, put his shoulder to the cart, it being +very heavily laden. He went plodding along, his face white, +his eyes blazing with stubborn resolve, his teeth chattering +as one in an ague: but never said one word. Hanka walked +languidly after the cart, her elder son holding to her skirt +and roaring, her younger one clasped to her bosom. Before +them she drove a cow, a flock of geese, and two lean +swine: and her voice was so loud in imprecations and +mourning that folk came out of their houses, and followed +her as in procession.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At Boryna’s, the meal was eaten in sombre silence.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The old dog Lapa barked in the porch, ran after the +cart, returned and howled. Vitek called it; but it paid no +heed. It smelt the farm-yard, entered Antek’s empty +rooms, ran round them one or twice, rushed into the passage, +barked again, whined, fawned on Yuzka, and again +tore about as though distracted: then it sat down on its +hind quarters with a strange air of imbecility—and finally +made off, with its tail between its legs, on Antek’s trail.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Even Lapa has gone after them!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do not fear, Yuzka,” her father answered tenderly; +“Lapa is coming back soon. They will have no food for +him. Come, no silly puling, but prepare the other rooms: +Roch is to live in them. Call Yagustynka to help +you.... You must take household matters in hand now; +being housekeeper, you’ll have many a care on your +head.... No, no! no whimpering, dear!” He took her +head in both his hands, and stroked it, and drew her +caressingly to his heart.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>“When I go to town, I’ll buy you a pair of shoes.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, will you, will you, Father?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, I will indeed, and many another thing besides. +Only be a good girl, and take care of the place.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And will you buy me a caftan like Nastusia’s?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Certainly, dear, I’ll buy you one.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And ribbons too?—But long ones ... such as I shall +want for your wedding-day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Say but what you need, little one, and you shall have +it ... all you want!”</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER XI</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>“Are you sleeping, Yagna?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How can I sleep? I woke at dawn ... with +the thought that I am to be married to-day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are sorry, darling, are you?” she whispered; there +was in her heart a mingling of hope and fear.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Wherefore? Shall I be sorry that I must leave your +home, and go to my own?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova, crushing down the pang which suddenly +seized her at the words, did not reply at once. She rose +from her bed, dressed herself carelessly, and went out to +wake up the lads in the stable. These had overslept themselves +somewhat, the “Unbinding of Hair”<a id='r20'></a><a href='#f20' class='c002'><sup>[20]</sup></a> having taken +place in the cabin the evening before. It was broad daylight, +and the morning, clad in hoarfrost, flooded the world +with silvery splendour.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova washed her face in the passage, and went +quietly about the house, ever and anon peeping at Yagna, +whose face was scarcely discernible in the shades of the +bedroom, dark as yet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lie there, darling! lie there still! Lie for the last time +in thy mother’s home,” she murmured, love and sorrowing +pain contending within her many a time. What she had +coveted so ardently, she had now: yet she felt such anguish +that she could not but wince at the smart of it, and sat down +upon the bed.—Boryna ... a kind man, who would treat +her daughter with due respect.... And Yagna could do +whatever she liked with this man, who saw nothing in the +whole world but her!</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>No. It was not he that she dreaded, but the stepchildren.—Ah, +why had he driven the Anteks from his home? +Now, if ever, would they brew mischief and seek revenge. +But yet, if he had not done so?... Antek at Yagna’s side!—A +sin against God might have ensued.—Well, there was +no help for it now. The banns were published, the guests +invited; the pig was killed, the settlement safely stowed +away.... No, no, no! What would come of it had to +come; and while Dominikova lived, she would suffer no +wrong to be done to her daughter.—Having come to this +final decision, she went out to rate the lads for their sloth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When she returned, she thought to rouse her daughter too; +but Yagna had fallen asleep again, and the quiet regular +breathing of slumber was heard from her bed. Once more +did the mother feel anxieties and uncertainties swoop down +upon her, like hawks with talons tearing at her heart, +screaming distrust, and predicting some vaguely awful impending +doom. But she dropped on her knees by the +window and, with red bleared eyes fixed upon the flushed +dawn, prayed very hard for a long time. And she rose, full +of strength to meet any fate that might come, no +matter what!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, Yagna dear, get up; it is high time. Eva is +coming at once to cook, and we have so much to do still!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is the weather fine?” the girl inquired, raising her +heavy head.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So fine that all the country round is glistening over with +hoarfrost. The sun will rise presently.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna, aided by her mother, was soon dressed. Then +the latter, after due consideration, spoke thus:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What I have told you before, I will repeat again. +Boryna is a good, kind man; but you must take great +care ... not to make friends with any chance acquaintance, +or let tongues ever again wag against you. People are +curs: they love to bite.—You hear me, dear?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I hear, yes; but you speak as though I had not any +judgment at all.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No one is the worse for good advice.—See well to this: +<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>Boryna must never be set at naught, but always treated +with tender respect. An old man cares much more for +that sort of thing than a young one does.... And who +knows whether he may not settle all his land on you? or +perhaps give you a big sum—from hand to hand?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For that I care nothing,” she interrupted impatiently.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because you are young and inexperienced. Look round +you: what is it men quarrel for, work for, and make every +attempt to get? Why, what but property, property alone!—The +Lord never, never made you for toil and suffering.—Whom +have I laboured for all my life, if not for my Yagna?—And +now I shall be alone—quite alone!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But the lads will not quit your side; they will always be +with you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of them I have as much joy as of the day that is no +more!” She wept, and added, wiping her eyes: “You +must also live in harmony with your husband’s children.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka is a kindly girl. Gregory will not be back from +the army for some time yet. And—and....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Beware of the smith!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, he is on the best of terms with Matthias.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If so, it is for some reason of his own: be sure of that.—The +Anteks are worst of all; they will not be reconciled.... +His Reverence wanted to make peace yesterday, but they +would none of it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, but Matthias is a wicked old man to drive them +from his house!” Yagna burst out passionately.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s that—what do you say, Yagna? Do you know +that Antek would have taken back the land from us—that +he cursed you, and said of you things unfit to repeat?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Antek against me? Antek? They lie who told you +so.... May their foul tongues drop out of their heads!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh! And what is it sets you so strongly on his side? +Say!” she asked with a threatening look.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Their being all against him! I am not a begging dog +that fawns on all who toss him bread. He is ill-used, and +I know it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>“You would like to return the deed of settlement to him, +would you not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna could speak no further; a stream of tears fell from +her eyes; she rushed into the inner room, bolted the door, +and cried there for a long while.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova did not try to interfere. The scene had +awakened new feelings of anxiety in her mind, but she had +no time to brood over them. Eva came; the lads slouched +into the passage; the last preparations and arrangements +were now to be made.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun was up, and the morning-tide rolling on.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The frost of the previous night had been hard enough +for the roadside pools and the borders of the pond to be +coated with ice, and the quagmires to bear the weight of the +lesser flocks.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now it was growing warmer, though in the shadow and +under the hedges the frost still reigned. The thatches +dripped with crystal drops, and wreaths of smoke-like +vapour were curling up from the marshes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Not the least little cloud floated in the dark azure of +the sky.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Nevertheless, crows hovering about the cabins, and cocks +frequently crowing, foretold bad weather to come.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was Sunday; and though the bells had not yet begun +to ring, the whole village was like a hive of swarming bees. +Half the inhabitants were smartening themselves up for the +wedding of Boryna with Yagna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In every cabin, turmoil and racket prevailed; everyone +was getting ready, trying things on, and dressing carefully; +and out of many an open window and door came the sounds +of merry voices.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On Dominikova’s premises, of course, everything was in +seething tumult, as usual on such a day.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The cottage, freshly whitewashed, was noticeable from +afar, having been decorated with green boughs in Whitsuntide +fashion. Already the day before, the boys had come +to fix pine-branches on the thatched roof and where possible +<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>along every chink in the wall. From the fence to the porch, +fir-tree boughs had been likewise set up, so that the fragrance +was like that of the woods in the springtime.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Within, the arrangements made were very fine indeed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On the farther side of the house, generally used as a +store-room, a great fire had been made, and Eva from the +miller’s was cooking there with some neighbours and +Yagustynka to help her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All the furniture had been removed from the other side, +the room whitewashed afresh within, the chimney-piece +veiled with a great piece of blue drapery. Nothing remained +but the holy images on the walls; but the lads had +carried in stout benches and long tables, which they set up +along the sides. The ceiling, with its age-darkened rafters, +had been adorned with paper figures that Yagna had herself +cut out. Matthias had fetched her coloured paper from +town, out of which she had snipped many a fringed and +variously coloured circle, and imitating flowers, and curiosities +of different descriptions—as, for instance, a dog running +after sheep, its master following it, staff in hand; or +a church procession, with priest, banners flying, and images +borne aloft—and so many other marvels of the same kind, +it was impossible to remember them all! And all were well-shaped +and artistic in appearance, and had been greatly +admired the evening before, when they were unplaiting +Yagna’s tresses. She knew how to make many another +thing besides—anything that caught her eye or fancy; and +in all Lipka there was not a cabin without some cutting +made by her hands.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Having partly dressed herself in the other room, she came +out to paste the rest of her cuttings upon the walls beneath +the holy images, there being no room anywhere else.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna! will you have done with those fancy things of +yours? The people are assembling, the band is marching +through the village: and that girl is amusing herself with +drolleries!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Plenty of time, plenty of time,” she returned briefly; +but she now stuck no more cuttings, and busied herself +<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>strewing the floor with pine-needles, laying the tables with +fine linen cloth, exchanging a few words with her brothers, +or strolling about the place and looking out at the scenery. +But she felt no pleasure in all this: not the least. She was +going to dance and hear the band play, and was fond +both of music and of dancing: that was all. Her soul, like +the present day of autumn serenity, was cloudless and +radiant, but lifeless. Were it not that all things reminded +her it was her wedding-day, she might even have forgotten +that. At the “Unplaiting,” the day before, Boryna had put +in her hands eight strings of coral beads—all that his wives +had left at their death. And now they lay at the bottom +of her trunk: she had not even put them on. To-day she +felt no interest in anything. Willingly would she have +flown away somewhere—but where, she knew not! Everything +teased her; and what her mother had told her about +Antek recurred persistently to her mind. What! <i>he</i> speak +evil of her? She could not, would not believe it: the very +thought made tears start.—Yet, it might be!... Yesterday, +she was washing linen; he had passed by, and never +looked her way! In the morning, she was going with +Boryna to confession. Antek, coming in their direction, +had turned back as from a savage dog.... Well, then, let +him snarl at her if he would; let him snarl!</p> + +<p class='c004'>She began to feel herself in indignant revolt against him. +But a sudden flash of memory brought that evening back to +her, when they had returned together from plucking cabbages +at his father’s. The recollection went to her head, her +mind was wrapped and plunged in flames all over; it revived +so intensely that it was not to be borne. Thereupon, +to make a diversion, she cried point-blank to her mother:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll have you know I won’t let my hair be cut off after +the wedding!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Here’s a clever one for you! Who ever heard of a +girl whose hair was not shorn after the wedding?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“At manors, and in towns.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Certainly. Yes, they—<i>they</i> have to keep their hair, to +cheat the folk, and pass for what they are not.—Why +<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>would you bring in a new order of things, you? Let the +manor girls make laughing-stocks of themselves by all +means; let them go about, hairy as Jewesses. They are +fools, and they may. But you—no town rubbish, a daughter +of the soil from grandsire and greatgrandsire—you have +to do as has ever been done amongst our peasantry!—Ah, +I know them, those town conceits and fancies!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna, however, stuck to her point. Eva, an experienced +woman, who knew many a village, and year after +year went on foot to Chenstohova with the pilgrim companies, +tried her best to persuade the girl; so did Yagustynka, +though according to her way seasoning her advice +with jests and bitter railleries. At last she said:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Keep your tresses, do; they will serve Boryna, when he +beats you. He’ll twist them round his hand, and so use +his stick better upon you. And then you will cut them off +by yourself.... I knew a woman....” But here she +broke off. Vitek had come to call her. She was staying +with Boryna since Antek’s expulsion, Yuzka proving too +young for a housekeeper. Now helping Eva in the cooking, +she would once in a while run round to the house to see +to things there, as the old man’s brain was topsyturvy that +day. Ever since morning, Yuzka had been at the blacksmith’s, +smartening herself; and Kuba lay continually +ill in bed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The lad had come in a hurry. “Kuba wants you sorely: +pray come this instant.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Off at once!—Good friends, I shall just see what it is, +and be back here directly.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hurry, Yagna; we are expecting the bridesmaids,” said +Dominikova warningly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But she made no haste at all, seemingly in a drowsy +fit.... Her work fell from her fingers, and she would +stand sometimes gazing vacantly out of window. Her soul +was as though turned to water within her—water that flowed +hither and thither, and now and again splashed and broke +on some rock of memory.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the cottage, the hubbub was ever increasing, with the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>constant arrival of many a dame—now a kinswoman, now +a housewife: these, according to ancient custom, bringing +Dominikova fowls, or a loaf of wheaten bread, cake, salt, +flour, pieces of bacon, or a silver rouble wrapped up in +paper—all these things as thank-offerings for the invitation, +and to make up for the heavy expenses incurred.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Each of them drank a little nip of sweetened vodka, +chatted a few minutes with the old dame, admired everything, +and hurried away.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova herself superintended the cooking, cleared +things away, and saw that everything was duly done; not +omitting to scold her sons for laziness; and, indeed, they +dawdled much, and each of them slipped out whenever he +could into the village to the Voyt’s, where the musicians +and the bridesmen had gathered already.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Few people attended High Mass, and this vexed his +Reverence, because folk had forgotten the Divine Service +on account of a mere wedding. Which was very true; but +people also said to themselves that such a wedding was not +to be witnessed every Sunday.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All those invited came driving in at once after the noonday +meal from the neighbouring villages.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun, shedding a dim hazy splendour over the autumn +fields, had begun to roll westward; the ground seemed +shiny and glistening as if with dew, the pond shimmered +tremulously, the roadside ditches had a glassy gleam; the +whole landscape was soaked in the dying light and the cooling +heat of the last autumn days.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Burning down like a candle, the day was slowly approaching +extinction.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The village of Lipka, however, was inspired with all the +animation of a fair.</p> + +<p class='c004'>No sooner had the Vesper bells rung for the first time +than all the musicians at the Voyt’s sallied forth into +the road.</p> + +<p class='c004'>First came the fiddlers, each marching abreast with a +flutist; then the bass-viol-players, and the drummers, to +whose instruments there were little bells attached: all +<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>adorned with flying ribbons, and advancing with elastic +steps.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After the musicians walked a troop of eight: the two +“proposers,” who had arranged the match, and the six +bridesmen. These were all handsome young fellows, slender +as pine-trees, slim-waisted, broad-shouldered, enthusiastic +dancers, audacious of speech, fond of a fray, and great +sticklers for their rights: such were they all six, and all of +good families, pure farmer’s blood.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Together they marched, shoulder to shoulder, down the +middle of the road, the ground echoing under the tramping +of their boots: with such merry daredevil looks, and so +gayly adorned, that they killed the whole scene—a vision of +striped trousers glancing in the sun, of scarlet jackets, hats +decked with bunches of floating ribbons, and white capotes, +open and flapping in the breeze like wings.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Uttering shrill cries, and humming joyful tunes, on they +dashed, tramping noisily in measure—a young pine-grove +in motion and rushing with the blast!</p> + +<p class='c004'>The musicians played polonaises, going from hut to hut to +call the wedding guests; here vodka was offered them, there +they were asked in; elsewhere a song would answer to their +tunes; while on all sides the folk came out, dressed in +their best raiment, and went swelling the main body. And +under the windows of the bridesmaids all sang in unison the +following verse:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Lasses, lightly treading,</div> + <div class='line'>Come ye to the wedding—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Hear our gleeful tune!</div> + <div class='line'>Hear our voices’ chorus</div> + <div class='line'>Join with flute sonorous—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Hautboy and bassoon!</div> + <div class='line'>Let the tankard clink now:</div> + <div class='line'>Who is loth to drink now—</div> + <div class='line in6'>He’s a scurvy loon!</div> + <div class='line'>Oy ta dana dana,</div> + <div class='line'>Oy ta dana dana,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Oy ta dana da!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>And then they shouted so loud that they could be heard +throughout the whole village, and beyond in the fields and +the forests.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The folk had come out in front of their houses, into the +orchards. Many who had not been invited joined the party, +merely to look on and listen; so, before it had reached its +destination, pretty nearly the whole village was round them, +pressing and surging on every side, while the children ran on +in front: a dense crowd, a swift and a noisy one.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Having brought the guests to the bridal cottage, playing +them in with a joyful strain, they returned to fetch the +bridegroom.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek, who, brave in his short jacket adorned with ribbons, +had accompanied the bridesmen, now ran fast +before them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Master!” he cried through the window. “They are coming!” +And off he ran to where Kuba lay.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They played a good while there before the porch. Boryna +came out directly, threw the door wide open, and would +have had them all in; but the Voyt and the Soltys took him +by each arm and led him straight away to Yagna; for it +was high time to go to church.</p> + +<p class='c004'>His gait was full of mettle, and he looked surprisingly +young. Clean-shaven, with hair newly cut, and his wedding-suit +on, he made a rarely handsome figure; besides which, +portly and broad-shouldered as he was, the dignified expression +both of his features and his whole outer man made +him conspicuous from afar. He smiled and talked pleasantly +with the young men who had come; especially with +the smith, who managed to be always close to him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They brought him in ceremony to Dominikova’s, where +the crowd made place for him; and, with tumultuous cries, +and sounds of many instruments and songs, he entered the +cabin.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna was as yet invisible: the women were arraying her +in the inner room, carefully watched and strongly bolted. +For the young fellows knocked and battered at the door; +they cut narrow slits in the partitions, and made careless +<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>jests with the bridesmaids: whereupon rose great screaming, +much laughter, and of old women’s scolding not less.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The old dame, with her sons, received the guests, offered +vodka, conducted the elders to the places reserved for them, +and in short had an eye to everything.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All the guests were of high condition: no common men, +but only men of property and of good family; and of these +only the wealthiest. All were connected with the Borynas +and the Paches by ties of family and friendship, or were at +least acquaintances who had driven over from distant +villages.</p> + +<p class='c004'>None of your Klembas, or your Vincioreks, none of your +one-acre starvelings were there: nor any of the small fry +that eked out their existence by working for others, and +were the closest adherents of old Klemba!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No dainties for dogs, and no honey for hogs,” says the +adage!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Presently the door opened; and the organist’s wife and +the miller’s ushered Yagna into the big room. The bridesmaids +formed a circle round her—a wreath of human flowers +they were, all so beautifully dressed and so fair to see. +And she—she stood in their midst, like a rose, the most fearless +of them all; with head-dress of plumes and ribbons and +silver and gold lace, she was like one of those images they +carry in church processions; and they all stood mute before +her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ah! since the Mazur was first danced, no one was ever +more splendid!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then did the bridesmen lift up their voices, growling +from the depths of their throats:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Resound, O violin, resound!</div> + <div class='line in4'>(Yagna, now ask pardon of your mother!)</div> + <div class='line'>Resound, O flageolet, resound!</div> + <div class='line in4'>(Yagna, now ask pardon of each brother!)</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna came forward and took her hand. They both +knelt, and Dominikova made the sign of the cross over them +with an image, and then sprinkled them both with holy +<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>water. Yagna, bursting into tears, fell at her mother’s +knees, embracing them, and the other women’s too, as she +begged pardon and took leave of them all. The women +gathered her into their arms, passing her from one to another, +and all wept much: Yuzka the most, thinking of +her dead mother.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They all formed up before the house and marched off on +foot, for the church was but one field away.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then the bridesmen took possession of Yagna. She +walked on with delight, smiling through the tears which still +trembled in her lashes. She now was gay to see as a spring-blossoming +bush, and riveted every eye. Her hair, braided +over her forehead, bore above it a rich pile of gold spangles, +and peacock’s eyes, and sprigs of rosemary. Therefrom, +down to her nape and shoulders, fell long ribbons of every +hue; her white skirt was gathered at the waist in abundant +folds; her corsage, of sky-blue velvet, was laced with silver; +she wore great puffed sleeves to her chemise. Round her +throat there was an abundant frill, embroidered with designs +in dark-blue thread, and necklaces of coral and amber, +row upon row, hung covering half her bosom.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Matthias was being led by the bridesmaids.</p> + +<p class='c004'>As the stalwart oak may be seen rising behind the graceful +pine in the woods, so did he appear after Yagna’s figure. +There was in his gait a certain jaunty swing, and he shot +glances on either side of the road: he fancied he had beheld +Antek in the ruck.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Following him came Dominikova, with the “proposers,” +the smith and his family, Yuzka, the miller’s and the organist’s +people, and all the persons of any note.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And following these came the whole village.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sun was now hanging above the woods, red, enormous, +flooding all the road, and the pond, and the huts, with +its blood-red glow.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the midst of this crimson conflagration they walked +on slowly. It made the eyes blink to see them as they went—with +ribbons and peacock plumes and flowers; gay in +red trousers, petticoats of orange tints, rainbow kerchiefs, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>snowy capotes: just as if a whole field full of flowers in +bloom had arisen and moved forward, swaying in the wind!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Aye, and singing too! For again and again the high +treble of the bridesmaids’ voices would strike up the ditty:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>On the clattering wagons go,</div> + <div class='line'>And my heart is full of woe,</div> + <div class='line in24'>Alas!</div> + <div class='line'>Round you while our songs rise glad,</div> + <div class='line'>You, O Yagna, you are sad,</div> + <div class='line in24'>Alas!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>All the way, Dominikova was in tears, her eyes fixed +upon Yagna alone.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose was already lighting the tapers in church when +they came.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They formed in ranks—two and two—and proceeded toward +the high altar, just as the priest was coming out of +the sacristy.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The wedding was soon over: his Reverence had to visit a +sick man in haste. When they left the church, the organist +played them out with Mazurs, Obertases, and Kuyavy +dances, till their feet beat time of themselves; and more than +one was on the point of singing aloud, but luckily remembered +where he was.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They returned pell-mell, and very noisily, for bridesmen +and bridesmaids were singing together.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova got to her home first and, when the company +arrived, was there to welcome the newly married couple +on her threshold, and offer them the hallowed bread and +salt; then she had to receive the whole company a second +time, embrace them all, and ask them in once more!</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the passage, the music was striking up. So, on passing +the threshold, everyone made a partner of the first woman +he met, to perform the stately polonaise that was being +played. At once, like a many-coloured serpent, a chain of +couples, following each other about the room, waved and +twined, twisted and turned back decorously, struck the +floor with dignity, swayed to and fro in graceful undulation, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>placed, swam, wheeled about, one after another in serried +ranks, Boryna with Yagna leading off!</p> + +<p class='c004'>The lights placed on the chimney penthouse flickered, and +the very walls seemed like to fall asunder with the forceful +gravity of this solemn dance, performed with such dignified +grace.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This was the introduction, and lasted but some minutes. +Then began the first dance, in honour of the bride, and according +to the usages and customs of old days. All present +squeezed themselves into corners, or huddled against the +walls; and the young men made a wide circle, within which +she danced. As she stepped out, she felt the blood tingling +in her veins; her dark-blue eyes shone; her white teeth +gleamed; her face was flushed; she danced persistently, and +for a long time, for she was obliged to give each partner at +least one turn round the room, and dance with all.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The musicians worked hard—worked till they felt worn +out: but Yagna seemed to have but just begun. The flush +on her face deepened, she turned and whirled more impetuously +than ever; her ribbons fluttered and rustled as she +went by, lashing those near her on the cheek; and her skirt, +expanding to the streaming air, spread out and bellied wide +around her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The young men, delighted, beat time on the tables, and +shouted in eager excitement.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was only after all the others that she chose her bridegroom. +Boryna, who had been waiting so long, now leaped +forward, pouncing on her like a forest lynx, seized her +waist, whirled her round like a hurricane, and cried to the +players:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Now, boys, the Mazur—and with a will!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>All the instruments sounded with might and main; the +whole room was in a fever.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Holding Yagna in a strong grip, Boryna lifted the skirts +of his capote over each arm, settled his hat upon his head, +clicked his heels together, and set off, swift as the wind!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ah! but how he danced! Now turning round and round, +now with a backward step, now bringing his foot down as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>if he would stamp the floor to shivers—then sidling with +Yagna, and sweeping her on, and whisking her hither and +thither, and whirling her so that they twain formed but one +indistinct mass, looking for all the world like a spindle full +of yarn, spinning about a room; and from each of them +there came forth a full blast of power and force.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Furiously, unceasingly, the players went on playing the +Mazur dance!</p> + +<p class='c004'>The crowds in the corners and at the door looked on in +silent wonder: Boryna was so indefatigably active, and ever +at higher and higher pressure, that he instilled not a few +with riotous boisterousness, even to beating the measure with +their feet; and some of the hottest heads, no longer restrained +by decorum, seized a girl and danced about with +her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna, though brawny and well-knit, soon had to give in; +he felt her weakening in his arms, and immediately ceased +from dancing, and led her to the inner room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What a splendid fellow you are!” the miller cried out. +“Henceforth you are my brother!—Ask me to be godfather +at the first christening, I pray you!” And he put his arm +round Boryna’s neck. Soon they were on very familiar +terms, for the music had stopped and refreshments were +handed round.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova and her sons, with the smith and Yagustynka, +now glided swiftly about, bearing bottles and clusters +of glasses, and drank with each one. Yuzka and the friends +of the old dame carried pieces of bread and cake about in +sieves to the guests.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And the tumult grew and increased.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On a bench near the window sat the miller, with Boryna, +the Voyt, the organist—all the notables in the place besides; +and there a bottle of rum—not of the worst—was +circulating among them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Many were also standing about the room in groups, talking +loudly to anyone they met, as they felt inclined; and the +vodka glasses were in requisition.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The inner room was lit by the organist’s great lamp, lent +<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>for the occasion. The housewives, with the organist’s wife +and the miller’s at their head, had gathered there, and sat +on chests and benches strewn with pieces of woven wool. +They held their heads up with great dignity, sipped their +mead by tiny droplets, crumbled the sweet cake with dainty +fingers, and very rarely threw in a word or two, but listened +attentively while the miller’s wife told them all about her +children.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The very passages were quite full. Some tried to invade +the other side; but Eva drove them out. They proved +too greedy for the dishes, the appetizing scent of which +had filled the house, and was making many a mouth water.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The young people then dispersed all about the premises, +in the yard and the orchard. The night was chilly, but +serene and starlit. Here they strolled, disporting themselves +in merry guise; and all the place echoed with laughter, +shouts, and running to and fro, one chasing another among +the trees. So the elders cried a warning to them from the +window:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are ye seeking flowers by night, girls?—Beware lest ye +lose what is more than any flower!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But who paid heed to them?</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna and Nastusia were now walking about the big +room, their arms round each other’s waists, whispering together, +and ever and anon bursting into laughter. Simon, +Dominikova’s eldest son, was watching them, with eyes +glued to Nastusia, and frequently going to her with vodka +and attempting conversation.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The blacksmith had dressed up most grandly, having on +a black capote, and trousers over which the boots were +drawn. He slipped about with great activity, was everywhere, +drank with everybody, walked to and fro and talked; +and his red head and freckled face were never long on the +same spot.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The young people danced several times, but not long, nor +with much animation. They were looking forward to the +supper.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The old men, on their side, were deep in debate, the Voyt +<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>raising his voice higher and higher, striking the table with +his fist, and laying down the law:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I, the Voyt, have said it: you may take it from me. +I, a man in office, have received a paper commanding me to +call a meeting, and order half a kopek per acre to be voted +by every landowner for educational purposes.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You, Peter, may vote even five kopeks an acre if you +like: we won’t!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No, that we will not!” one of the men roared.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I am making you a statement as an official!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We do not care for such schools as those,” Boryna remarked; +and the others assented in chorus.<a id='r21'></a><a href='#f21' class='c002'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c004'>“In Vola,” said one, “there is a school which my children +attended for three winters running. What is the result? +They cannot even read in a prayer-book.—Devil take such +teaching!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let the mothers teach prayers at home; prayers have +naught to do with studies. I, the Voyt, tell you this!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then what are schools for?” grumbled the man from +Vola, rising.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I will tell you, I the Voyt: but listen....”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Here he was interrupted by Simon, who cried aloud to +them all that the trees of the clearing sold to the Jews had +already been branded by them, and that they would have +them cut down as soon as the sledges could run.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Brand the trees they may: to fell them will be harder!” +Boryna put in.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We shall complain to the commissary.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who is hand in glove with the Squire?—No: let us go +in a body and drive the woodmen off.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They shall not hew down one single sapling!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthias, drink to me! Now is no time for holding +councils. A tipsy man will even defy God!” So cried the +miller, filling Boryna’s glass. The talk was as little to his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>taste as the threats were; for he had an agreement drawn +up with the Jews, and the trees were to go to his sawmill.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They drank and left their places; the tables were now to +be laid for supper, and all the needful things were being +brought in.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The farmers, however, still stuck to their forest grievance, +which was a great wrong done to them. They formed +a group, and with lowered voices (so that the miller might +not overhear them) determined to thresh the matter out at +Boryna’s.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At this juncture, Ambrose came in, and went straight to +them. He had come late, having had to go with his Reverence +to a sick person three villages away, in Krosnova. +So now he set to drink energetically, to make up for lost +time. Vainly: for at that very moment a chorus of elderly +women struck up the song:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Bridesmen, about, about! With you it rests</div> + <div class='line'>Round the spread tables now to bring the guests!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>To which they replied, having given the signal by striking +on the benches:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Lo, we have called them: they are ready here</div> + <div class='line'>Your spread to taste, if it be but good cheer.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The guests, now straggling in to table, took their seats on +the benches.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The newly married couple had the first places, and all +the others sat about them in order of precedence, as they +were higher in standing, in possessions, or more advanced +in age—from the elders to the girls and children. Tables +had been set up along three of the walls, and yet there was +scarce room for them all. The bridesmen and the musicians +remained standing, the former to serve the guests.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There was a hush. The organist stood up and said a +prayer aloud; after which, a glass went round, with the sentiment: +Health and enjoyment!</p> + +<p class='c004'>The cooks and bridesmen then bore in a huge and deep +dish of smoking food, singing the while:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>Friends, we bring you dainty food:</div> + <div class='line'>Fowls in rice-soup boiled and stewed!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>And, carrying in the second dish:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Tripe with pepper, spiced and hot:</div> + <div class='line'>He’s a fool that likes it not!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The musicians, stationed near the fire-place, played various +tunes very softly, to give more savour to the food.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All the company ate with becoming refinement, and deliberation; +few spoke at all, and for some time the room +resounded only with the sound of munching and the clatter +of spoons. When they had to some extent slaked their appetites, +the smith set another bottle in circulation; and +now they began conversing (though in low tones) to one another +across the table.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna ate scarcely anything at all. In vain did Boryna +urge and coax her, entreating her as one entreats a child to +eat. She could not even swallow the meat before her; she +was so hot, so tired!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna, are you content, sweet? Most beautiful Yagna, +you will be as happy with me as ever you were with your +mother.... Yagna, you will be a lady—a lady! I’ll hire +a girl, that you may not be overworked.”—He spoke in +hushed tones, and looking with love into her eyes, caring +not for what folk might say; and they began to make fun +of him openly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He looks like a cat after bacon!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“How the old fellow flaunts his wantonness! Beside him, +a cock is nothing at all.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, he is enjoying himself, Grandfather Boryna is!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As a dog does out in the frost,” old Simon here muttered +spitefully.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All held their sides with laughter, and the miller laid his +face down on the table and beat it with his fists for sheer +joy!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Once more the cooks entered, proclaiming:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'><span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>Here is a dish of Turkish wheat,</div> + <div class='line'>Cooked with plenty of lard, for lean folk to eat!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“Yagna, just bend over to me, I’ll tell you a thing,” the +Voyt said, plucking at her dress behind her bridegroom, +whose next neighbour he was.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I would be your child’s godfather,” he cried, laughing, +and gloating over her with greedy eyes.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At this, she grew very red; and the women, seeing this, +fell a-laughing and jesting yet more facetiously, some setting +to explain to her how she ought to behave to her +husband.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’ll have to warm a feather-bed for him every evening +before the fire, or he’ll be cold as ice.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And especially see he has much fat to eat: it will keep +him in good condition.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And pet him well, with your arms round his neck.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And drive him with a gentle hand, that he may not +know he is driven at all!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>So they babbled on, each sentence freer than the last, as +happens when women have taken too much, and let their +tongues run away with them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All in the room were shaking with merriment, and things +at last went so far that the miller’s wife set to lecturing them +on their duties towards the girls and little ones present; and +the organist pointed out how grievous a sin it was to cause +others to offend by evil example.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What? is this bellows-blower forbidding people every +pleasure in life?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Being close to the priest, he thinks himself a saint!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Let him stop his ears, an it like him not.” And more +unpleasant cries began to be heard, for he was disliked in +the village.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“We have a wedding to-day, and therefore, my good people, +I, your Voyt, assure you it is no sin to enjoy yourselves, +laugh at things laughable, and make merry.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And our Lord Himself used to go to weddings and +drink wine,” Ambrose added seriously; but no one made +<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>out what he said, as he was now tipsy, and sitting by the +door besides. Then all fell to talking, joking, clinking +glasses, and eating more and more slowly, in order to get +more compactly filled up; some even, to make room for the +most food possible, undid their girdles, and sat straight +and stiff.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Again the cooks entered, with the following couplet:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>It grunting, squealing, rooting once about the garden ran:</div> + <div class='line'>But now, for all the harm it did, ’twill pay the husbandman!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, they have done the thing grandly!” the people +declared.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Truly, this wedding must come at least to a thousand +<i>zloty</i>!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, she can well afford it: has she not got six acres +of land thereby?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Just look at Yagna! Is she not gloomy as night?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As a set-off, Boryna’s eyes are shining like a wildcat’s.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Say, like tinder, my friend—rotten tinder!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, the man will weep over this day yet.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No. He is not of the weeping sort. Of the cudgelling, +rather.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Just what I said to the Voyt’s wife, when she told me +the marriage had been settled.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, I wonder why she is not here to-night.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Out of the question. Her child may be due any day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But I’d lay my head that in no long time—say, before +the Carnival begins—Yagna will be again running after the +lads.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthew is only waiting for that.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I know. Vavrek’s wife overheard him say so in the +tavern.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because he was not asked to the wedding.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes. The old fellow would have had him, but Dominikova +was against it.—All the folk know why, do they not?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well, all say so; but what has anybody seen?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Bartek Koziol saw them in the wood last spring.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>“He is a liar and a thief: Dominikova accused him of +stealing a pig, and what he says may be mere spite.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But others too—there be others that have eyes.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All this will end ill ... you will see. ’Tis no affair +of mine, but to my mind, Antek and his family have been +unjustly dealt with.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of Antek, too, people talk—say they have been seen +together here and there.”—The voices dropped lower as the +spiteful talk went on, leaving no shred of reputation on any +of the family, and the more unmerciful for their hostess as +they had more pity for her two sons.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is’t not a sin?—Simon, a man wearing mustachios—thirty, +if a day—and she will not let him marry, nor leave +the house: and for the slight fault she raises a tempest!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is indeed a shame: such strapping lads, and doing all +the woman’s work!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So that Yagna, forsooth, may not soil her hands!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Each of them has five acres of his own, and might marry +at his ease!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“With so many unmarried girls around them!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, yes; your own poor Martianna, waiting for ages, +and the land quite close by Paches’!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You let her alone! See rather to your girl Franka, +lest she come to grief with Adam!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Those great oafs!—Afraid to leave their mother’s apron-strings!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They are beginning: Simon has been all the evening +staring at Nastka.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Their father was of the like mould: I remember well.—Aye, +and the old woman was in her time no better than +Yagna.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As the root is, so the boughs; as the mother, so the +daughter.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The music ceased, and, supper being over, the musicians +went to refresh themselves in the kitchen. But after a time +the noise waxed even louder than before, and the whole +place seethed with uproar: all talking, ranting, shouting +<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>away one to the other across the tables, and no one able to +make out what was said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At the close of the meal, the most select guests were offered +a drink compounded of mead and spices, while the +others got strong vodka and beer in abundance.</p> + +<p class='c004'>By this time, but few were well aware of what they were +drinking, being too far gone and in a blissful state. They +made themselves comfortable, and unbuttoned their capotes +to be cooler; beat the tables with their fists till the dishes +jingled, embraced each other, either round the neck or +clutching at the shirt-collar; and they talked freely, unbosoming +themselves and telling all their sorrows as if they +had been brothers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“’Tis ill living here on earth! Things are out of gear +with mankind, and we have naught but grief!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, men are like dogs, snapping at one another for a +bone.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No consolation, save when neighbour meets neighbour +over a glass, and they take counsel, and make complaint; +and if any has wronged or been wronged, he is forgiven and +forgives!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“As even now, at this wedding-feast: but, ah! for one day +only!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah! To-morrow will come, though we call him not! +You’ll not shun him, save in God’s hallowed Acre.... Yea, +he will come and seize you, and lay on you his yoke, and +smite you with the whip of poverty; and you, O man! must +pull ... even till the yoke be bloodstained.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What is’t aggravates our misery, setting men one against +the other, like dogs quarrelling for a fleshless bone?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Not poverty alone, but an Evil Power; and they then +are blinded by him, discerning not good from evil.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Truly so; and he bloweth upon our souls as one bloweth +on half-quenched embers; and he causeth greed, malice, and +all wickedness to burst out into flame!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; for he that is deaf to the commandments hath a +quick ear for the music played in hell.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>“It was otherwise of old days.—Then was there obedience, +and respect for old men, and concord.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And each man had land, as much as he could till; and +pastures, and meadows, and the forest.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who in those days ever heard of taxes?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Or was there anyone that purchased timber? He had +but to drive to the wood and take all he needed, though it +were the best pine or oak. The property of the Squire was +the peasants’ property too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And now it belongs to neither, but to the Jews, or to +men still worse.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The foul carrion! (I have drunk to you: drink you to +me!...) They are now established as on land of their own! +(Your health, Brother!) ... To drink vodka is not a sin, +if only at the proper season and with brothers: this is a +wholesome thing, it cleanses the blood and drives away +distempers.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Who drinks at all, should drink one quart complete—likewise, +who makes merry, should do it all Sunday long.—But +have you work to do? Man, do it with all your +might, grudge not your force, but put forth all your +strength. And if ill things come to pass—if your wife be +taken, if your cattle die, or your home burn down—why, +’tis the will of God. Do not rebel: what will it avail you to +lament, poor creature as you are? Be patient, therefore; +trust in God’s mercy. Aye, and if the worst should hap, +and should grim Crossbones stare you in the face and +clutch your throat, attempt not to escape, which is more than +you can do; all is in the hand of God!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Verily, who is to know the day when the Lord shall declare: +‘Thus far, O man, is thine: what is beyond is +mine?’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is so of a truth. As lightning flashes, so are the +decrees of God: and none, be he a priest, be he a sage, +can know them till they fall, as ripe corn falls out of the +ear.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Man, you have to know but one thing—to do your +duty, live as God commands you, and not look too far +<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>ahead.—Surely our Lord prepares the wages of His servants, +and pays most strictly what is due to each.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“By these laws did the Polish people stand of old, and +they are for ever and ever, Amen.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, and by patience shall we prevail against the gates +of hell.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thus they discoursed together, with not infrequent libations, +everything pouring out all he felt in his heart, all +that had long stuck in his throat and stifled him. Ambrose +talked the most of all and the loudest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At the very end, Eva and Yagustynka came in with great +ceremony, bearing in front of them a large ladle, tricked out +and beribboned. A musician who followed accompanied +them on his fiddle, while they sang:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Ere you quit us, here come we;</div> + <div class='line'>’Fore you both your cooks you see:</div> + <div class='line'>Pray forget us not, good men:</div> + <div class='line'>For each dish give stivers three;</div> + <div class='line'>For our seasoning stivers ten!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The company had eaten plentifully, and drunk yet more; +their hearts were warmed by good cheer, and many a man +tossed even silver coins into the ladle as it passed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They then slowly rose from table, and went out, some to +breathe the fresh air, some to resume their conversation in +the passages or in the great room; some gave way to enthusiastic +demonstrations of friendship; and more than one +reeled about, running his head against the walls or some +other man, butting like rams.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Only the Voyt remained at the board with the miller, +both quarrelling with intense fury, and about to fly at each +other like two hawks, when Ambrose came to reconcile them, +offering more vodka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Back to your church porch, old beggar,” the Voyt +snarled at him, “and hold yourself aloof from your betters.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>So Ambrose walked off in dudgeon, hugging the bottle +to his breast, stumping noisily and seeking someone to drink +and talk with as a friend.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>The young people had dispersed about the orchard, or +were walking arm-in-arm along the road, with much horse-play, +and chasing of one another, and shouting. The night +was serene; the moon hung over the pond, which glittered +so bright that the feeblest circles tremulous on its surface +were distinctly visible, moving like snake-coils in silence, +responsive (as it seemed) to the light that struck on them +from above. The frost was pretty hard, the road-ruts were +crisp underfoot, the roofs rime-crusted and hoary. It was in +the small hours, for the first cock-crow had already been +heard.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Meanwhile they set the great room in order for dancing +again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Rested and refreshed, the players now again, in subdued +strains, called the guests together.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna had been taken to the private room by the matrons, +Boryna sat with Dominikova close to the door, the +elders took seats on benches and in corners, where they discussed +various matters, and only the girls stood about the +room besides, giggling together: a pastime which soon tired +them, and they decided on starting some games, “to stir the +boys up a little.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>First there was the game, “Fox goes out to make his +round; both his hands and feet are bound.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yasyek, nicknamed Topsy-turvy, was dressed up as Fox, +in his sheepskin turned inside out. He was a silly fellow, a +simpleton, and the laughing-stock of them all. Though a +full-grown man, he played with children, and was in love +with all the girls and foolish beyond measure: but, being +an only child with ten acres of his own, he was invited everywhere. +Yuzka Boryna was his quarry, the Hare. And they +laughed; Lord, how they laughed!</p> + +<p class='c004'>At every step, Yasyek stumbled and fell down, sprawling, +with a thud like a log. The others, too, put out their +feet to make him fall; and Yuzka got out of his way with +perfect ease: she sat up quite as a hare does, and imitated +to perfection the way its lips move.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then came “Quails.”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>Nastka was leader, and so nimble that no one could +catch her till she let them (in order to dance a measure with +someone).</p> + +<p class='c004'>Finally, Tomek Vahnik was made up for a Stork, having +a sheet over his head and a long stick which he held under +it for beak; and he clack-clack-clacked like a real stork, so +well that Yuzka, Vitek, and all the youngsters ran after him, +calling (as they do to the live bird):</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Klek, Klek, Klell!</div> + <div class='line'>Thy mother’s in hell!</div> + <div class='line'>What does she there?</div> + <div class='line'>Cook children’s fare!</div> + <div class='line'>What was her sin?</div> + <div class='line'>That her little ones’ bellies had nothing in!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c011'>And the hullabaloo was great; for he ran after them, and +pecked with his beak, and flapped his wings violently.</p> + +<p class='c004'>These games lasted but an hour, when they had to make +way for other observances.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now the married women brought Yagna out of the private +room, covered all over in a white wrapper, and seated +her in the centre, on a kneading-trough on which a feather-bed +had been put. The bridesmaids thereupon rushed forward +as though to snatch her away, but the men kept them +off: and at last they formed a group opposite, intoning a +sad and plaintive chant:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Where is your wreath, oh, where</div> + <div class='line'>Your bridal wreath so fair?</div> + <div class='line'>Henceforth, to man’s will bowed,</div> + <div class='line'>A cap, your locks to shroud,</div> + <div class='line'>You on your head must bear!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The matrons then uncovered her.</p> + +<p class='c004'>She was seen wearing the cap of the married women over +the thick plaits of her tresses; yet in this disguise she appeared +still more fascinating than before.</p> + +<p class='c004'>To the slow strains of the band, the whole assembly, +young and old, struck up the “Hop-Song” in one grand +<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>unison of gladness. This ended, she was taken over by the +matrons alone, to dance with them.... Yagustynka, by +this time much heated, set her arms akimbo, and flung this +impromptu verse at her:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh! had I known this day would see</div> + <div class='line in2'>My Yagna wed a widower,</div> + <div class='line'>A wreath I would have woven thee</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of naught but prickly juniper!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c011'>After which came others, yet more biting than the first.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But little note was taken of them; for the musicians had +struck up for the greatest performance of all; and forward +now came the dancers, and the trampling of many feet was +heard. They crowded thickly, couple close to couple, cheek +by jowl, moving ever more swiftly as the dance went on. +Capotes flew open and flapped wide, heels stamped, hats +waved—now and then a snatch of song burst forth—the +girls hummed the burden, “da dana,” and tore on more +quickly still, and swayed in measure in the mighty, swirling, +headlong rush! No one could any longer distinguish +his neighbour in the throng; and when the violins burst +forth in quick sharp volleys of clean-cut separate notes, a +hundred feet echoed on the floor at once, a hundred mouths +gave tongue, a hundred dancers, seized as by a cyclone, +whirled round and round; and the rustling of capotes, skirts, +kerchiefs waving about the room, was like the flight of a +flock of many-coloured birds. On they went, on continually—dancing +without the slightest pause for breath, the +floor clattering like a drum, the walls vibrating, the room a +seething cauldron. And the rapture of the dance waxed +greater, greater yet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then came the moment to perform rites which are always +gone through when the bride puts aside her crown of +rosemary.</p> + +<p class='c004'>First, Yagna had to pay toll, on entering the matrons’ +set!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Immediately afterwards, another ceremony was gone +through. The men had a long rope, woven of the straw of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>unthreshed wheat, of which they made a large ring, carefully +held and guarded by the bridesmaids, Yagna standing +up in the middle. Whoever wished to dance with her +was obliged to creep under it, tear her away by force, and +tread a measure, though they scourged him all the time with +cords, wherever they could. Finally, the miller’s wife and +Vachnikova made a collection, for “The Cap.” The Voyt +came first; he tossed a gold piece into the plate; after that, +silver roubles tinkled like hail; lastly, paper ones, as leaves +in autumn.</p> + +<p class='c004'>More than three hundred roubles were thus collected!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova, quite overcome to see so large a sum offered +for Yagna’s sake, told her sons to bring more vodka, with +which she herself pledged her hosts, kissing her friends and +weeping at their great kindness.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Drink, my good neighbours, drink, dear friends, beloved +brothers of mine.... I feel spring back in my heart +again...! Yagna’s health ... drink once more ... +once more....” And when she gave over, the smith drank +with others, and her sons too, each separately; for the +throng was very thick. Yagna too, thanking them heartily +for their kindness, embraced the knees of the elders +present.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The room was humming, the glasses circulating freely +from hand to hand; everyone exhaled ardour and joy. +Faces were crimson, eyes resplendent; hearts went out to +hearts. They stood in knots about the room, drinking and +talking blithely, each saying his say very loud, unheard by +any, but not caring for that!—All felt at one; one joy united +and penetrated them all! “Ye that have troubles, leave +them for the morrow; take your fling to-night: enjoy +friendly company, solace your soul! Our hallowed land, +its summer spell of fruit-bearing over, is given rest by the +Lord: even so is it meet that men should rest in autumn, +when their field-work is done. Man, that have your cornstacks +piled and your granaries full of grain worth heaps +of precious gold—rest you now from summer labour and +toil gone by!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>So spake some, while others again revolved in their minds +their troubles and their griefs.</p> + +<p class='c004'>To neither of these classes did Boryna belong. His eyes +saw only Yagna, his heart swelling and throbbing with the +pride of her beauty. Again and again would he throw +<i>zloty</i> to the musicians, that they might not spare catgut: +for the sounds were growing weak, as their zeal was flagging.</p> + +<p class='c004'>On a sudden, then, they thundered out an Obertas that +made one quiver to the backbone. Boryna leaped to Yagna’s +side, caught her in a mighty grasp, and at once started +such a dance as shook the planks beneath them. He wafted +her down the room—back again—clanged on the floor with +his horseshoe heels—knelt suddenly to her, and sprung up +again in a flash—bore her about from wall to wall—roared +out a solo which the instruments took up and accompanied, +and still led the dance, while other couples imitated him, +leaping, singing, stamping, and all with ever-increasing +rapidity: as if as many spindles full of particoloured wools +were together on the floor, turning, twisting, twirling, faster +than the eyes could make out their hues; so that no one +could discern lad from lass in the swift rush—only rainbow +masses, flying about, driven as by a goal, with ever-changing +tints, turning always with greater and more impetuous speed! +At times the rush of air even blew out the candles: the music +went on in the dark, and the dance as well, lit by the faint +white beams of the moon shining in through the window. +Then, athwart the seething dimness, were seen quick shadows, +flying fast, chasing one another in the mingled darkness and +silvery mist; foaming waves of pale glimmering and melodious +din surged up out of the black night, in dusky harmonies +of colour and sound—as in a vision or a dream—fading +back into impenetrable murk, to loom once more distinct +against the pallid wall, from which the glazed images of +the saints reflected the moonbeams with crinkled flickers: +and again they plunged and vanished into the shadows, and +only the sounds of heavy breathing, and quick steps and +cries, made their presence vaguely known in the entangled +confusion of the unlit room!</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>One dance followed another in rapid succession, and with +no interval between them. As each new dance was struck +up, new dancers directly sprang forward, erect as a forest, +swift of advance as a gale of wind; and loudly the stamping +feet thundered afar, and shouts of merriment echoed +through the house, while the onset went on, wild, mad, +stormy, and earnest as a struggle for life and death!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ah! how they danced!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Those Cracoviennes, with their frolicsome hop-skip-and-jump +measures, and the quick lilt of their clean-cut, tinkling, +metallic tunes; and the terse ditties, full of fun and +freedom, with which, like the spangled girdles of the peasantry +who made them, they are so brightly studded—those +tunes welling with joyous dashing melody, redolent of the +strong, abounding, audacious savour of youth in sportful +pursuit of the sweet thrilling emotions that tell of the hey-day +in the blood!</p> + +<p class='c004'>And those Mazurs, long-drawn-out as the paths which +streak the endless plains, wind-clamorous and vast as the +endless plains they streak: lowly, yet heaven-kissing; melancholy +and bold, magnificent and sombre, stately and +fierce: genial, warlike, full of discordances, like that +peasants’ nature, set in battle array, united as a forest and +rushing to dance with such joyful clamours and wonderful +strength as could attack and overcome ten times their number, +nay, conquer, sweep away, trample down, the whole +of a hostile world, nor reck though they themselves be +doomed, and fall, but still carry on the dance after death, +still stamping as in the Mazur—still crying out aloud: “Oy +dana dana!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And oh, those Obertases!—short of rhythm, vertiginous, +wild and frantic, warlike and amorous, full of excitement +mingled with dreamy languor and notes of sorrow; throbbing +with hot blood, brimming over with geniality and +kindliness, in a sudden hailstorm: affectionate voices, dark-blue +glances, springtime breezes, and fragrant wafts from +blossoming orchards, like the song of fields in the young +year; making tears and laughter to burst forth at the same +<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>time, and the heart to utter its lay of joy, and the longing +soul to go beyond the vast fields around her, beyond the +far-off forests, and soar dreaming into the world of All +Things, and sing ecstatically the burden, “Oy dana dana!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And all these dances, beyond the power of words to describe, +thus followed one after the other, that our peasantry +might make merry in season!</p> + +<p class='c004'>And thus did they take their pleasures at the wedding of +Boryna and Yagna.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The hours slipped away in clamour and din and uproar; +in noisy merry-making and dances fast and furious: they +did not note that the dawn was spreading in the East, that +the daybreak’s streams were slowly pouring their pallor into +the night’s black gloom. The stars grew wan, the moon +sank; a wind that sprang up beyond the woods passed by, +chasing the dark that waxed thinner and thinner: the +gnarled tufted trees looked in at the windows, bowing yet +lower their slumberous frost-crowned heads, but the folk +within were singing and dancing still!</p> + +<p class='c004'>The doors had been thrown wide open; so had the windows; +the house, brimming and boiling over with lights +and tumult, trembled, creaked and groaned, while the dance +went on, now in utterly uncontrollable and rapturous excitement. +It seemed to those within—such was their state!—that +trees and people, earth and stars, and the hedges and +the time-honoured cabin itself, were all wrestling and writhing +together, united in one inextricably whirling cluster, +blind, intoxicated, raving, and in utter oblivion of all; reeling +and rolling from room to room, from wall to wall, from +passage to passage, and out into the road and the enormous +world, caught in a round that filled the universe—fading +away in the long unbroken chain of crimson lights now +glowing in the East!</p> + +<p class='c004'>And the music led them on—the tunes played and the +songs.</p> + +<p class='c004'>How they kept time in their growling, the gruff bass-viols, +uttering their broken humming sounds, like huge humble-bees! +And how the flutes led the band, merrily whistling +<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>and twittering, as in mockery of the drum’s joyful thuds and +strokes, swelled by the jingling of its bells that shook with +laughter, and floated lightly like a Jew’s beard in the wind! +And then how the fiddles took the lead and came to the +front, like girls leading the ballet, and sang out loud and +shrill at first as though to try their voices—then played with +wide, sorrowful, heart-rending sweeps of the bow—the lamentations +of orphans driven from their homes—and then +again, with an instantaneous change, fell into a lilting tune—short, +trilling, sharp, like the tripping of a hundred dancers’ +heels, at which a hundred full-throated lads shouted +themselves out of breath, and quivered all over, and set once +more to turn and sing and dance mincingly, laughing and +rejoicing, heat rising anew to the head and desire to the +heart, lie strong vodka ... when they fell again into +the slow long notes of sorrow and weeping—as dew upon the +plains!—uttering the notes of our own beloved tune, most +near to the heart, instinct with mighty yearning tenderness, +and making all dance deliriously to the strains of our +Mazovian air!</p> + +<hr class='c012'> + +<p class='c004'>The candles were growing dim, so near was the day; a +dingy ashen twilight pervaded the room where they danced. +But they still took their enjoyment as heartily as ever. If +any found the liquor now flowing too scantily, he sent to +the tavern for more vodka, sought out companions, and +drank with them to his liking.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Some had withdrawn; some were tired and resting awhile; +some, overtaken by drink, were sleeping off its fumes in the +passage or by the door: others, still more intoxicated, were +stretched under the hedges. All the rest danced on, danced +ever.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At last, some of the more sober made up a group by the +porch and, beating the floor in measure, sang thus:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O wedding-guests, come home!</div> + <div class='line'>Already sings the lark;</div> + <div class='line'>The wood is deep and dark,</div> + <div class='line'>And ye have far to roam:</div> + <div class='line in24'>Come home!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-l c013'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>O wedding-guests, come home!</div> + <div class='line'>There’s danger in delay:</div> + <div class='line'>Athwart our weary way</div> + <div class='line'>The loud floods roll and foam:</div> + <div class='line in24'>Come home!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>But no one cared to listen to them and their song!</p> +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span> + <h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER XII</h2> +</div> +<p class='c009'>It was grey dawn when Vitek, tired out by the merry-making +and driven home by Yagustynka, hastened to +Boryna’s hut.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A little watch-light was burning there, like a glow-worm. +Vitek looked in at the window, and beheld the old <i>Dziad</i>, +Roch, sitting at the table, where he was singing hymns.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The boy silently glided away to the stable, and was fumbling +at the door-catch, when he jumped back with a cry +of astonishment. A dog had leaped upon him, uttering a +whine.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What, Lapa, Lapa? ’tis you back again, poor wretch!” +he cried, and sat down on the door-step, overcome with joy.—“Hungry +and starving: is it not so?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He had put by a bit of sausage, saved from the feast, +which he now took out of his bosom to offer the dog. But +it did not care for food just then: it barked, laid its head +on the lad’s breast, and whined for sheer delight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Did they starve you, poor thing? did they drive you +away?” he whispered, opening the cow-byre door, and at +once throwing himself on his straw bed. “But now I shall +defend and take care of you.” With these words he nestled +deep in the straw; and the dog, lying down beside him, +growled gently and licked his face.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were both asleep in an instant.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From the stable close by, Kuba called to him in a voice +weakened by illness. He called for a long time; but Vitek +was sleeping like a dormouse.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After a time, however, Lapa recognized his voice, and +fell to barking furiously and pulling the boy’s coat.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s the matter?” Vitek asked sleepily.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Water! The fever is pulling me to pieces.... Water!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>Vitek, peevish and drowsy though he was, brought him a +pailful, and held it to his lips.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am so ill, I can hardly breathe!... What’s growling +round here?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, Lapa!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lapa is it?” Kuba groped to touch the dog’s head in +the dark; and Lapa leaped about, frisked, and tried to get +on to the bed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Vitek, give the horses their hay; they have been gnawing +the empty mangers a long time; and I cannot move.... +Are they still dancing?” he asked a little later, when the lad +was filling the racks with hay.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They are not like to have done till noon; and some are +so drunk, they are lying by the roadside.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, they are enjoying themselves, the masters are!” +And he sighed deeply.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Was the miller there?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, but he left rather early.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Many people?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Beyond counting. Why, the cabin was overflowing with +them.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Plenty for all?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Like manor guests! They brought them meat in such +huge dishes! And vodka and beer and mead were poured +out in floods! Of sausages alone, there were piles enough to +fill three troughs.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“When is the bride coming?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“This afternoon.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They are rejoicing and feasting still. My God! I +thought I’d gnaw a bone at least, and eat my fill once in +my life!... And here I am, lying, sighing, and hearing +about other people’s good cheer!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek returned to his bed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“If I could but feast my eyes on those good things!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He said no more, feeling weary, sad, and tormented by +a sort of faint timid querulousness that gnawed at his +heart now. At last, however, he spoke, patting the dog’s +head.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>“Well, well! may they all be the better for it! Let <i>them</i> +at least get some pleasure out of this life!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The fever, increasing, began to confuse his thoughts; +to drive it away, he applied himself to prayer, offering himself +to the mercy of the Lord Jesus; but he could not remember +what he was saying; he was dazed with sleep coming +over him, and only a string of ejaculations that were +prayers mingled with tears, trickled from his consciousness—the +told beads of a crimson rosary!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now and then he roused himself, but only to look around +him blankly, recognizing nothing, and fall back into deathly +and corpse-like unconsciousness.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Again he woke, now to groan so loud that the horses +pulled at their bonds and snorted to hear him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O God! that I may but hold out till day!” he moaned +in terror; and his eyes wandered through the window, staring +out at the world and the approaching dawn, seeking +the sun in that sky yet grey and lifeless and studded with +paling stars.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But the day was a long distance away still.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the stable, plunged in turbid mistiness, the horses’ outlines +were growing dimly visible; and the racks beneath the +window slits showed like ribs in the pale glimmer.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Fall asleep again he could not: the pains were torturing +him anew; they felt like sharp gnarled sticks thrust into +his legs, piercing, boring, stabbing in and in; and the agony +became so unbearable that he started up, screaming with all +his might, till Vitek woke and came round.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I am dying!... Oh, how it pains!... How the pain +swells! how it crushes me! Vitek, run for Ambrose.... +O Lord!... Or else call Yagustynka.... Perhaps she +can help.... I am not able—my last hour is here....” +He burst out weeping terribly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek, all sleepy as he was, ran to the wedding feast.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The dancing was yet at its height; but Ambrose, being +completely tipsy by now, had taken his station on the road +opposite the cabin, where he kept reeling and singing between +the road and the edge of the pond.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>Vitek implored him to come, and tugged him by the sleeve, +but to no purpose; the old man heard nothing, understood +nothing around him, singing the same song over again with +obstinate repetition.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek then applied to Yagustynka, who was not ignorant +of healing. But she was in the private room, sipping <i>krupnik</i>,<a id='r22'></a><a href='#f22' class='c002'><sup>[22]</sup></a> +talking and chattering with her good friends so intently +that she would listen to no one else. And as the +boy was importunate, begging her with tears to come at +once, she in the end drove him from the room. So he went +back crying to the stable, having accomplished nothing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>When he returned, Kuba was asleep again; and he too, +burrowing deep in the straw and covering his head with +a clout, went off to sleep.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was long after breakfast-time when he was waked by +the noise of the hungry unmilked cows, and by the fierce +scoldings of Yagustynka, who, having overslept herself just +like the others, now made up in clamour against them for +what she had neglected herself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was only after she had got the work somewhat in swing +that she went to see Kuba.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He said in a feeble voice: “Pray help me and do +something.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Just you marry a young wench, and you’ll be well in +a trice,” she began cheerily; but, seeing his livid swollen +face, grew serious at once. “You need a priest more than +a physician.... What on earth can I do for you?... So +far as I can see, you are sick unto death, aye, even unto +death!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Must I die?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“All’s in God’s hand: but you’ll not escape Crossbones’ +clutches, I’m thinking.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’m to die, say you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Tell me: shall I send for his Reverence?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For his Reverence?” Kuba cried, in amazement. “His +Reverence to come here—to a stable—to me?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>“What of that? Think you he’s made of sugar, and +would melt if he came near horse-dung? It’s a priest’s +business to go wherever they call him to a sick man.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“O Lord! how could I dare?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You are a silly sheep!” She shrugged her shoulders and +left him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The woman knows not what she says,” he muttered, +greatly scandalized.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now he was quite alone, all the others seeming to +have forgotten him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From time to time, Vitek looked in to give the horses +provender and water. He gave him water, too; but presently +went back to the wedding. At Dominikova’s they +were preparing to bring the bride home.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Often Yuzka would rush in noisily, bring him a bit of +cake, prattle of many things, fill the stable with racket, +and run out in a hurry.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yes, and she had something to run for. Hard by, they +were amusing themselves fairly well: the band, the shouting, +the singing were to be heard through the walls.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba lay motionless. A strange feeling of desolation +had come over him. He merely listened, and noted how +well they enjoyed themselves, and talked to Lapa, his never +absent companion. They two ate Yuzka’s cake together. +Then the sick man called to the horses and talked to them +also. They neighed with pleasure, turning their heads +round from their mangers: the filly even managed to slip +her halter and come to his pallet, where she caressed him, +putting her warm moist nose close to his face.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Poor dear, you have lost flesh, you have!” He patted +her tenderly, and kissed her dilated nostrils. “As soon as +I am well, you will fill out, even if I have to give you +nothing but oats!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then he lapsed once more into silence, and stared at the +blackened knots in the timber walls, oozing with dark drops +of resin—as it were, tears of congealed blood.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dumb, and with feeble sunbeams, the day peeped in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>through the chinks, and a flood of shimmering motes appeared +at the open doorway.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Hour after hour dragged by at a snail’s pace, like lame, +blind, and dumb beggars, crawling painfully through toilsome +beds of deep sand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Only, now and again, a few chirruping sparrows, swooping +down on the stable in a noisy band, would boldly make +for the mangers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, the clever little ones!” Kuba said. “And God gives +those tiny birds understanding, to find out where they can +get food.—Be still, you, Lapa! let the poor things feed and +keep up their strength: winter will presently be with them +too.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The pigs now began to squeal and poke their muddied +noses in at the door.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Drive them off, Lapa! The beggars, they never have +enough!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>After these, a lot of fowls came cackling to the threshold, +and one large red cock was so bold as to pass over it to +the baskets of provender. The others followed, but had +no time to eat their fill, when a flock of gaggling geese drew +near, hissing on the threshold, flashing their red bills, +stretching and swaying to and fro their straight white necks.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Out with them, Lapa—out with them! All those fowls—as +bad as women for quarrelling!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Suddenly there was an uproar—screaming, flapping, +feathers flying as out of a torn bed. Lapa had entered well +into the spirit of the chase, and came back breathless and +its tongue lolling out, but uttering cries of delight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Be quiet now!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>From the house there came a torrent of angry words, a +sound of running, and the dragging of furniture from one +room to another.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, they are making ready for the bride’s coming!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Someone, though rarely, passed along the road: this time +it was a lumbering creaking cart, and Kuba, listening, tried +to guess whose it was.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>“That’s Klemba’s wagon. One horse—ladder framework; +going to the woods for litter, I dare say. Yes, the +axle rubs against the nave, so it creaks.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Along the road there was a continual sound of footsteps, +talk, and noises scarcely to be heard at all; but he caught +them, and made them out on the spot.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s old Pietras, going to the tavern.—Here comes +Valentova, scolding: someone’s geese have gone on to her +field, belike.—Oh, she’s a vixen, not a woman!... This, +I think, is Kozlova, shouting as she runs—yes, it is!... +Here is Peter, son of Raphael ... when he talks, his +mouth always seems full.—This is the priest’s mare, going +for water.... Now she stops ... cart-wheels blocked by +stones.—One of these days she will break a leg.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And so he went on, guessing at every sound he heard, +going about all the village with quick thoughts and lively +mental vision, and entering so into the whole life and +troubles and worries of the place, he scarce noted that the +day was declining, the wall darker in hue, the doorway +dimmer, and the stable quite obscure.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose arrived only when evening had set in. He was +as yet only partly sober; he staggered a little, and spoke so +quickly it was hard to follow him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hurt your leg, eh?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Look and see what it is.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Silently he undid the bloodstained rags; they had dried +and stuck so fast to the leg that Kuba could not help +shrieking as he pulled them off.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A girl in childbed would not cry as you do!” Ambrose +muttered scornfully.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But it hurts so! How you tear me! O God!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And Kuba all but howled.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oho! you have caught it finely! Was it a dog that +tore your leg like that?” Ambrose cried, wondering. The +leg was horribly mangled, and swollen with matter to the +size of a water-can.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It was—but pray tell no one—the forest-keeper that +shot me....”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>“Yes I see.—And hit you from afar, eh? Well, well! +your leg will never again be of any use. I feel the splinters +of bone rattling about.... Ah, why did you not call me +in at once?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I feared ... lest they should know I had been after +a hare.... But I was out of the forest, when the keeper +shot at me.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Once, in the tavern, he complained; someone was doing +mischief, he said.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“The foul carrion! Is a hare, then, the property of anyone?... +He laid a trap for me.... I was in the open +field, and he let fly with both barrels.—Oh, the hell-hound!—But +say nothing; they would take me to the law-court; +the gun, too, is not mine, and they would seize it at +once.... I thought it might heal by itself.—Oh, help me! +It pains so! it is tearing me to bits!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, you cunning trickster, you! with your sly games and +your forbidden quests, sharing the forest hares with the +Squire!—But, you see, this partnership will have cost you +your leg!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He examined it again, and looked sorely distressed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Too late, ever so much too late!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba was terrified. “Please do something for me,” he +moaned.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose, without replying, turned up his sleeves, whipped +out a very keen clasp-knife, grasped the leg firmly, and set +about extracting the shots and expressing the matter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba roared like a beast at the slaughter-house, till the +other gagged his mouth with his sheepskin, and then he +swooned with the agony of it. After dressing the wound, +and applying some ointment and fresh bandages, Ambrose +brought him to.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You will have to go to the hospital,” he said in a +low voice.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Kuba was still dazed. “To the hospital?” he asked, not +knowing what was said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“They would cut off your leg, and you might get well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“My leg?”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>“Of course. It is good for nothing: black—decayed—rotten.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Cut it off?” he asked, still unable to understand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes. At the knee. Fear nothing: mine was cut off +almost at the thigh; and I am alive yet.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then I shall get well again, if the wounded limb is +cut off?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Even as though one should take out the pain with the +hand ... but you must go to the hospital.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There ... there they cut and carve living men’s +bodies!—Cut it off, you: I’ll pay whatsoever you will, but +cut it off!—To the hospital I will not go: I prefer dying +here!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then here you will die. None but a doctor can cut it +off for you. I am off to the Voyt’s at once; he will send +you to town in a cart to-morrow.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No use: I will not go,” he replied, stubbornly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Fool! do you think they will ask your leave?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The old man went out, and Kuba said to himself: +“When it is cut off, I shall be well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>After the dressing, his leg had ceased to pain. But it +was numb as far up as the groin, and he felt a tingling all +along his side: this he did not notice, plunged in thought +as he was.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I should recover.—Yes, I surely should. Ambrose has +nothing left him of his leg: all he walks on is wooden. +And he said: ‘As though one should take the pain out +with his hand....’—But then, Boryna would turn me +away.... Aye, a farm-hand with but one leg—such a one +cannot plough, nor do aught else.—what would become of +me? I should have to tend cattle ... or beg my bread! +Wander about, or sit at some church-door.—O Lord, merciful +Lord!” And on a sudden his position flashed clearly +upon him; and under the horror that now assailed him, +he even sat up. And then he uttered a deep cry of impotent +agony, his mind rolling in an abyss from which he saw no +issue. “O Jesus, Jesus!” he repeated in a fever of excitement, +quaking in every limb.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>Long did he shriek and struggle thus in his anguish; but +in the midst of those tears and that despair, a certain resolve +was slowly shaping itself, and he brooded more and more +deeply. Little by little, he grew calmer, more at peace, +thinking so profoundly that he heard nothing around him, +though surrounded by the din of instruments and songs +and clamour; just as if he had been in a deep sleep!</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was then that the bride and the wedding guests arrived +at Boryna’s house.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They had led away a goodly cow, and sent Yagna’s box +and feather-bed, and various articles that she had received +as wedding presents, before her in a cart.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now, just a little after sundown, the procession left +Dominikova’s cabin, as darkness was falling and the mists +rising up.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Playing lustily, the band marched in front; then Yagna +went on, still in her wedding dress, and conducted by her +mother and friends: last of all, and without any order, came +the ruck of guests, each in the place he had chosen.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Their way wound along by the pond, now darkened, its +gleaming quenched in the ever-thickening folds of the fog; +the silence and obscurity growing blacker and more dead, +the tramping and music sounding muffled and, as it were, +from underneath the water.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From time to time one of the younger folk broke out into +song, or a matron took up a stave, or one of the peasant +lads cried: “Da dana!” but it was only a short outburst.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They were as yet in no merry mood, and, besides, they +were chilled to the marrow by the bleak damp air.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Only when they turned in to Boryna’s enclosure did the +bridesmaids lift their voices in a sad farewell:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Wending her way to her wedding,</div> + <div class='line'>The maiden wept.</div> + <div class='line'>Then lit they tapers four,</div> + <div class='line'>And played upon the organ.—</div> + <div class='line'>Didst fancy, maiden,</div> + <div class='line'>That they would play for ever?</div> + <div class='line'>—A little yesterday, to-day a little,</div> + <div class='line'>And after, thou shalt weep for all thy life!</div> + <div class='line'>Da dana!... All thy life!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>Before the threshold, and under the porch, Boryna was +waiting along with Yuzka and the young men.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Dominikova came forward first of all, carrying in a +bundle a piece of bread, a pinch of salt, a little charcoal, +some wax from a Candlemas taper, and a handful of ears +of corn, blessed on Assumption Day. As Yagna passed the +threshold, the matrons cast behind her threads plucked from +cloth seams, and the peels of hempstalks, that the Evil One +might find no entrance, but all things thrive with her!</p> + +<p class='c004'>They greeted, kissed, and pledged one another in cups of +mead, with wishes of luck, health, and all good gifts and +blessings; then they entered and filled the whole room, +every bench and nook and corner.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The players tuned their instruments, and then strummed +softly, so as not to interfere with the feast that Boryna was +now giving.</p> + +<p class='c004'>He simply went from matron to matron with a full goblet +in hand, offering, pressing them to partake, gathering them +in his arms, and drinking to each of them; the blacksmith +took his place with the others.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka was bearing on platters pieces of a cake she had +baked with curds and honey on purpose to please her father.</p> + +<p class='c004'>All the same, the party was dull. True, they emptied +their glasses as in duty bound, nor did they turn away from +the sausages. Nay, they even drank plentifully and with +due zest; only there was no mirth amongst them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The women too, who as a class are inclined to diversions +and pastimes, now only sat still on the benches, or here and +there in corners, not even talking much amongst themselves.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna went into the private room, where she undressed. +Returning in her everyday costume, she would have done +the honours of the cabin and treated her guests herself, but +that her mother would not let her touch anything.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Darling, enjoy your wedding-day now! You’ll yet have +work enough and enough toil!” And again and again did +<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>she weep over her most tenderly, and clasp her to her bosom.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The company found matter for laughter in this maternal +sentimentality of hers: their jeers being all the sharper that +now, on Yagna’s arrival as mistress in her husband’s home, +owner of so much land and property of every sort, her +new position was brought home to them. Many a mother, +with yet unmarried daughters, felt very bitter against her; +many a girl was choked with bile at the thought.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They went over to survey the other apartments, where +Antek had formerly lived with his family. There Eva and +Yagustynka had prepared a grand supper and made a roaring +fire. Vitek had hardly been able to bring logs enough +and place them under the enormous pots.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They examined all the premises besides, and ran their +envious eyes over all that there was to be seen.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The house itself, to begin with, was the first in the whole +village: large, conspicuous, tall, with rooms (they fancied) +as good as those in a manor-house: whitewashed, and with +boarded floors! Then how numerous the household articles +and utensils were! In the big room, too, there were a score +of holy images: and all of them glazed! And then, the +byre, the stable, the granary, the shed! Five cows were +kept there, to say nothing of the bull—no small source of +profit. And the horses, and the geese, and the swine—and, +above all, the land!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Eaten up with envy, they sighed deeply; and one said to +another:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lord! and to think that all this goes to one that is +undeserving!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh! they knew well how to bring their pigs to market!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; he that goes to meet luck always finds it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why should your Ulisia have missed this chance?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because she fears God and leads an honest life.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And all the rest do the same!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, were she other than she is, folk would not stand it +of her. Let them but meet her once at night in company +with a lad, and all the world will know!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What luck this one has!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>“’Tis the fruit of shamelessness.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come along!” Andrew called out, interrupting their +talk. “The music is playing, and not one petticoat is in +the room—nobody to dance with!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A mind to dance you have, but will your mother +let you?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So eager?—Beware and let not your trousers fall, boy: +’twere no fair sight!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Nor trip the dancers up with your legs!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Pair off with Valentova; you’ll make a fine couple ... +of scarecrows!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Andrew rapped out an oath, took hold of the first girl +he came across, and led her off, paying no heed to the +wasps humming behind him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>There were but few couples in the room as yet, and these +danced but slowly and (it seemed) with little zeal. Nastka +and Simon Paches were the only exception, and frisked +about very willingly. They had arranged matters beforehand +and, with the opening sounds of the music, had joined +in close union, and bounced about in scrupulous fulfilment +of their promise.</p> + +<p class='c004'>But no sooner had the Voyt come in (he was late, having +had to go with the recruits to the District Barracks) than +he began to make things look more lively; drinking deep, +talking with all the farmers present, and cracking jokes +with the newly-wedded couple.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why, your bride is as red as her skirt, and you are as +white as a sheet!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You’ll not say that to-morrow.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Matthias, experienced as you are, you surely have not +wasted a day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Nay, with all eyes upon him? Fie! the man is no +gander.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I would not bet half a quart that you say true. You +know: throw but a pebble into the bush: out flies the bird! +’Tis the Voyt tells you so!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna made her escape from the room; which occasioned +a loud guffaw.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>The women then proceeded to wag their tongues very +much at their ease, careless of what they said.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The hubbub swelled, and the guests grew more good-humoured +in proportion. Boryna, bottle in hand, went +several times the round of the company; the dancers, now +more numerous, frisked with livelier steps, and began +to stamp and sing, and circle about the room in wider +rounds.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then did Ambrose make his appearance and, sitting down +(nearly at the threshold), follow the bottle with wistful eyes, +as it went its way.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt cried to him: “You never turn your head, except +towards the clinking of glasses.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because of that same clinking!” he answered. “And +he has merit who gives to drink to them that thirst.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You leather bottle! here’s water for you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What’s good for cattle may be bad for man. They +say: ‘Water to drink is now and then not bad, but harm +from vodka no one ever had!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Here’s vodka for you, since you discourse so well.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You first, Voyt!—They say, too: ‘Water for a christening, +vodka for a wedding, and tears for a death!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Well said: drink another.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I should not even shirk a third. For my first wife I +always take one, but two for my second!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Why so?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because she died in time for me to seek a third.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What! Still dreaming about women, and his old eyes +see no more as soon as twilight comes!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is not always necessary to see.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>At this, they laughed uproariously, and the women cried +out:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“For the love of vodka and of talk, they are both well +matched.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“There’s a saying: ‘A wife good in talk, and a man +strong in deed, have every chance in the world to succeed.’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Voyt had now sat down by Ambrose, the others +crowding round, as many as could find seats, or, if they +<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>could not, standing about with little heed to the dancers’ +convenience.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And then began such a running fire of witty sayings, jests, +comic tales, and joyous banter, that they all shook with +laughter. In this field, Ambrose was the recognized leader, +and chaffed his hearers to their very faces with so much +humour and fun that they were like to split their sides. +Amongst the women, Vachnikova yielded to none for +drollery; she played first fiddle in that respect, with the +Voyt for bass-viol, so far as his official dignity permitted.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The musicians sawed away as hard as they could, and +scraped out the liveliest tunes they had; and the dancers +were shuffling along as fast, and shouting, and screaming, +and tapping with nimble heels. Blithe and delighted, they +had forgotten the rest of the world, when one of them +chanced to notice Yankel standing outside in the passage. +At once they pulled him into the room. The Jew took off +his cap, with amicable bows and salutations to all present, +and taking no notice of the nicknames showered upon him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yellow one!—Unchristened one!—Son of a mare!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You be quiet there!” cried the Voyt. “Let us treat him! +Here, a glass of the best vodka!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I was passing along the road, and wanted to see how you +husbandmen divert yourselves.—God reward you, Mr. +Voyt.—I’ll take a drop of vodka—why should I not?—to +the health of the newly-wedded pair!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna raised the bottle and invited Yankel, who, after +wiping the glass with the skirt of his capote, covered his +head, and tossed off one glass, followed by a second.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Stay a bit, Yankel: it will not make you unclean,” they +cried out in a merry vein. “Here, musicians, play us the +Jewish dance, and Yankel will caper to it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, I may dance; why not? ’Tis no sin.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>But ere the players had understood what was wanted of +them, Yankel slipped quietly into the passage, and vanished +in the yard. He had come to get back his gun.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They scarce noticed his exit. Ambrose had all the time +<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>gone on with his entertainment, to which Vachnikova contributed +a violoncello accompaniment, so to speak. And he +continued until supper-time, when the music ceased, the +tables were pushed forward, and the clatter of dishes was +heard: yet they still listened and he still held forth.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna invited them to sup, but without effect. Yagna +asked them again and again. The Voyt only got her into +the circle, made her sit down by him, and held her by +the hand.</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was Yasyek (nicknamed Topsy-turvy) who bellowed +out: “Come, good folk, and set to: the dishes are cooling.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Hold your tongue, blockhead, or lick the dishes with it.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Old Ambrose! You are lying like a gipsy, and fancy we +don’t know it!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yasyek, take what folk put into your mouth: you’re +good at that. But leave me alone, you are no match +for me!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“No match! Just you try, then!” the foolish lad shouted. +He thought Ambrose meant fighting.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“An ox could do all you can ... or more!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Because you bear his Reverence’s night-vase, Ambrose, +you think none has wit but you.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose was offended, and growled: “Let a calf into +church, he’ll come out just as he was.—Idiot!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yasyek’s mother attempted to stand up for her son. He +went off to table first of all, and soon the others took their +places in a hurry; for the cooks had brought in the smoking +dishes, and the odour filled the room.</p> + +<p class='c004'>They seated themselves in order of precedence, as was +fitting for the bride’s installation ceremony: Dominikova +and her sons in the middle, bridesmen and bridesmaids together; +Boryna and Yagna remained standing to serve the +guests, and see that all was done properly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A quiet interval succeeded, save that the brats outside +made a noise at the window, fighting with one another, and +Lapa barked in great excitement about the house and passages. +The company were quiet and decorous, while they +<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>worked hard to put the eatables away: only their spoons +tinkled about the rims of the dishes, and the glasses jingled +going round.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yagna was continually busy, setting some particular +dainty before each guest: here it was meat, there some other +very good thing. And she begged them all so courteously +not to stint themselves, and behaved with such natural grace, +conquering all hearts with her beauty and the pleasant +words she said, that many of the men present could not but +gaze on her in adoration, and her mother even laid down +her spoon to look and rejoice in her daughter.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Boryna, too, noticed this, and when she happened to go to +the kitchen, followed, caught up with her in the passage, +gave her a mighty hug, and kissed her enthusiastically.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Dear, what a housewife you make!—Like a manor-house +lady—so dignified and so pleasing in everything!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Am I not, eh?—Now run away to the room: Gulbas +and Simon are sitting apart, grumpy and eating little. Get +them to drink with you!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He obeyed, and did all she wanted. And Yagna felt now +strangely blithe of heart, and full of affection. She knew +herself the mistress of the house, knew that power had somehow +got into her hands: and therewith she was aware of +an accession of authority and serenity and strength. She +walked about the place at ease, eyed all she saw with keen +understanding, and managed things as though she had been +married ever so long.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What she is, the old man will find out soon enough, and +that’s his business; but to my mind there are in her the +makings of a housewife—and a fine one, too!” was Eva’s +muttered remark to Yagustynka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“A fool that’s in favour will always be clever,” the latter +returned bitterly. “Things will go on as they are till she has +had too much of the old man, and begins again running +after young fellows.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, Matthew is lying in wait: he has not given her up.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But give her up he will! Somebody else will make +him!”</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>“Boryna?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Boryna?” She smiled a crafty smile. “No, someone +yet mightier. I mean—no: time will show, and you will +see.—Vitek! Drive that dog away: it barks and barks till +my ears are aching. And drive those boys away too: they +will be breaking the panes, or doing some mischief.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Vitek rushed out with a stick. The dog barked no more. +But there were cries without, and the noisy footfalls of a +crowd of flying urchins. He drove them into the road, and +ran back, bent double to escape a shower of missiles that +assailed him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Roch showed himself in the shade at the corner of the +yard. “Vitek, wait a little. Call thou Ambrose; say I +want him very urgently indeed, and am awaiting him in +the porch.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was only after some time that Ambrose appeared, +and in a detestable humour. His supper had been interrupted, +and at the very best dish of all—sucking-pig with +peas.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“What? what? Is the church on fire?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do not raise your voice so. Come to Kuba: I fear he +is dying.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, let him die, then, and not prevent folk from eating +their supper! I was with him only this very evening, and +told him he would have to go to the hospital, and get his +leg cut off, and he would be well in a trice.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“You told him that?—Oh, then I understand.... I—I +think he has cut off his own leg!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Jesu Maria!—His—his own leg?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Come instantly and look. I was going to sleep in the +cow-byre, and had just entered the yard, when Lapa came +barking to me, and jumping, and pulling me by my capote. +I could not make out what it wanted; but it ran forward, +sat down on the stable threshold, and howled. Thither I +went and saw Kuba lying in the doorway, half in, half out. +I thought at first he had gone to get some air, and fainted +on the way: so I carried him back to his pallet, and lit +the lantern to get him some water; and it was then I saw he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>was bloodstained all over—deathly pale, and with blood +pouring from his leg.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They went in, and Ambrose did his very best to bring +Kuba to; but the poor fellow was extremely weak. He +scarce drew breath, and a rattling sound came through his +teeth, clenched so fast that, to give him a little water, they +had to prize them open with a knife.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The leg, which had been hewn off at the knee, and still +dangled by a shred of skin, bled profusely.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A great pool of gore lay on the threshold, close to a bloodstained +ax and the grindstone, usually placed under the +eaves, now fallen near the doorway.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Aye, he has cut it off himself. Afraid of the hospital.—A +fool to think it would avail him: but dauntless and +resolute all the same.—Good God! ... his own leg! ... +it is simply incredible.... And the blood he has lost!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>At this juncture, Kuba opened his eyes, and looked round +him with returning consciousness.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is it off?... I struck twice, but swooned——” he +said feebly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Any pain?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“None at all.... Weak as water ... but not ailing.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Ambrose dressed, washed and bound the leg with moist +rags, Kuba lay still meanwhile, uttering not the least sound.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Roch, on his knees, held the lantern, praying fervently +the while; but the patient smiled—a faint tearful smile, as +when an orphan babe, abandoned afield, knows only that his +mother is not there, not that she has forsaken him, and +enjoys the grass waving over his head, and the sunbeams, +and stretches out his hands to the birds that fly past, conversing +with all around him after his fashion: even so did +he feel now. He was at ease, without pain and in comfort; +so cheerful that he thought no whit of his ill, but felt secretly +rather proud of himself. How sharp he had ground +the ax! how well he had placed the limb on the threshold, +and—one blow not sufficing—struck a second with all his +might! And now the pain was all gone; so of course he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>had succeeded.—Oh, if he were but a trifle stronger, he +would not lie rotting on that pallet any more, but be up, and +go to the wedding ... dance even—and eat a morsel, for +he would fain eat!</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lie you still, and do not budge. I will tell Yuzka, and +you shall have something to eat presently.” So said Roch, +patting his cheeks; and he went out into the yard with +Ambrose.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He will drop off ere morning—fall asleep like a little +bird: there’s no more blood in him.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Then, while he is conscious, the priest must be sent for.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“His Reverence has gone to spend the evening at the +manor-house at Vola.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I’ll go and tell him: there must be no delay.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Five miles on foot and through the forest! You would +never be in time.—No: the carts of those guests here who +leave after supper are ready; take one and go.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>They got a cart on to the road, and Roch seated himself.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do not forget Kuba!” he called out as he started: +“Have a care of him!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes, yes, I shall remember, and not leave him by +himself.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Nevertheless, he did forget him almost directly. After +telling Yuzka about the eatables, he went back to supper, +and applied himself so close to the bottle that he very soon +remembered nothing at all....</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka, being a kind-hearted little girl, at once brought +him all she could get, piling it up on a dish, with half a +quart of vodka.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Here, Kuba, is something for you, that ye may eat and +enjoy yourself.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“God bless you!—Sausage it is, I fancy;—a delightful +smell!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“I fried it for you, that you might find it more savoury.” +She put the dish into his hands, for the stable was dark. +“But drink of the vodka first.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He drained the glass to the last drop.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>“Will you sit with me a little? I feel lonely here.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He broke the food, bit and chewed it—but could swallow +nothing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Are they in good spirits over there?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Oh, yes! and so many people! I never saw more company +in all my life.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Of course, of course,” he said, proudly; “is it not +Boryna’s wedding?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yes; and Father is so pleased ... and always going +after Yagna!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Indeed, for she is so beautiful—as fair to see as a Manor-house +lady any day.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Do you know, Simon, Dominikova’s son, is taken with +Nastka!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“His mother will forbid him. There are only three acres +of land at Nastka’s, and ten mouths to feed.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“That’s why she keeps strict watch and drives them apart +when she finds them together.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Is the Voyt here?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“He is.—Talking a great deal, and—together with Ambrose—making +the company laugh.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And why not, being at so great a wedding, and with so +great a man?—Do you know anything of Antek’s doings?”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ah, I ran over to him at dusk, with cake and meat and +bread for the little ones. But he turned me out, and threw +the things after me. He is very resolute; and fierce. Oh, +so fierce! And there is wailing and misery in their hovel. +Hanka is always quarrelling with her sister, and they have +well-nigh come to blows.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He made no reply, but breathed somewhat harder.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Yuzka,” he said after a while, “the mare!—I hear her +moaning. Since evening she has been lying down: she must +be near foaling-time, and ought to be looked after. Prepare +a mash for her.—Hark how she moans! And I cannot help +at all, so weak I feel—quite helpless!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He was worn out, and said no more for a while, seeming +to be asleep.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yuzka rose and went out in a hurry.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>“Ces, Ces, Ces!” he called to the mare, as he woke +suddenly.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The mare uttered a low whinny, and tugged at her halter +till the chain clanked again.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So then, once in my life at least, I shall eat and be filled! +Aye, and you too, good dog, shall get your share: no need +to whine.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He attempted once more to swallow some sausage, but +quite in vain: it stuck in his throat.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Lord, Lord, such heaps of food ... and I cannot so +much as eat one mouthful!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yes, it was utterly useless: he could not. His hand fell +powerless, and, still grasping the meat, he put it underneath +the straw of his bed.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“So much! Never so much yet! And all for nothing!”—He +felt rather sore.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“But let me rest a little now; and later, when I can eat, +the feast shall begin.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>He was just as unable afterwards, and slipped off into a +coma, still holding the sausage, and unaware that Lapa was +stealthily gnawing at it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Suddenly his senses returned.—The supper was over, and +such a blast of music burst on his ears from over the yard, +that the stable-walls vibrated, and the frightened fowls fell +a-cackling on their roosts.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The dance was in full and boisterous swing—and the +laughter and the frolic and the fun. Again and again +the trampling of feet resounded, and the shrill cries of the +lasses pierced the night.</p> + +<p class='c004'>At first, Kuba gave ear; but presently he became oblivious +of all things. A drowsiness seized upon him, and carried +him off into, as it were, a clangorous darkness, as though +beneath swift swirling murmurous waters. But when the +dance grew noisier, and the tumult and hubbub of the +stamping heels seemed about to beat all to shivers, he +stirred slightly: his soul peered up out of the dungeon where +it lay; roused from oblivion, coming back from infinite +distances, it listened.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>At such times, Kuba would endeavour to eat a little, or +whispered low, but from the heart:</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Ceska, Ces, Ces!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>And now at last his soul was slowly withdrawing—winging +its way through the universal frame of things. A new-fledged +bird divine, it fluttered around uncertainly at first, +unable to soar, and at times with a revival of attachment to +that sacred earth, its body, where it fain would rest from +the weariness of flight, and craved to soothe the pangs of +bereavement in the haunts of men. Back it went on earth +amongst his own, its loved ones, calling sorrowfully to its +brethren, and imploring their aid: but after a time, strengthened +by the Divine power and mercy, it was enabled to soar +on high, even unto those mysterious fields of endless spring, +those infinite unbounded fallows which God has made beautiful +with everlasting sunbeams and eternal joy.</p> + +<p class='c004'>And higher yet it flew, and higher, yet higher, higher—yea, +till it set its feet——</p> + +<p class='c004'>Where man can hear no longer the voice of lamentation, +nor the mournful discords of all things that breathe——</p> + +<p class='c004'>Where only fragrant lilies exhale balmy odours, where +fields of flowers in bloom waft honey-sweet scents athwart +the air; where starry rivers roll over beds of a million hues; +where night comes never at all——</p> + +<p class='c004'>Where silent prayers go up for ever, like smoke of incense, +in odoriferous clouds; and the bells tinkle, and the organ +plays softly; and the ransomed people—Angels and Saints +together—sing the Lord’s praises in the Holy Church, the +divine and lasting City!</p> + +<p class='c004'>Yes, worn out and longing to be at rest, thither did the +soul of Kuba fly away!</p> + +<hr class='c012'> + +<p class='c004'>But in the house they all were dancing—enjoying themselves +with the heartiest mirth and the best goodwill. Better +still than the evening before, the good cheer being dealt +out more generously, and the hosts more pressing. And so +they danced till they could dance no more.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>The place was in commotion, like a cauldron set upon a +great fire. Did the enjoyment show any signs of flagging, +at once the band set to with renewed zeal; and the guests, +like a field stirred by the wind and waving, sprang up and +began to dance anew with fresh fire and song and din and +tumult.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Now were their souls quite melted within them by the volcanic +enthusiasm of their host; their blood seethed hot, +reason was almost giving way, their hearts were beating with +the wildest frenzy. For them, every movement now seemed +a dance, every cry a song, and every look a glance of +ecstasy!</p> + +<p class='c004'>And so it went on all night long, and even till morning. +But the day rose, dull and still: the rays of dawn appeared +together with dense dreary masses of clouds. Ere the sun +had risen, the world grew very dark and dismal. And then +the snow came down: at first whirling, fluttering, scanty—as +when the needles fall from pine-trees on a windy day; +until it set to falling in earnest.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Then, as though coming through a sieve, the snow descended +in perpendicular flakes, straight down, equally dealt +out, monotonous, noiseless, covering roofs, trees, and hedges, +and all the land, as with an enormous covering of white +feathers.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The wedding was really at an end at last. True, they +were to meet again at the tavern in the evening, “to wind +up”; but for the present they decided to return home.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Only the bridesmen and bridesmaids, with the band to +lead them, drew up in the porch and sang in unison a short +song, in which, declaring themselves the devoted servants of +the wedded couple, they wished them good night—in the +morning!</p> + +<p class='c004'>It was then that Kuba laid his soul at the sacred feet of +the Lord Jesus....</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div>END OF PART I</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> +<hr class='c014'> +<div class='footnote' id='f3'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. <i>Voyt</i>—the headman of the community.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f4'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. Two men go to the girl’s family, offering vodka in the young +man’s name; if the girl drinks to him, she is regarded as affianced.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f5'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. An annual local festival held in every parish, where those who +come to church may gain an indulgence.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f6'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. <i>Koltun</i>—a diseased, matted condition of the hair.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f7'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. <i>Zloty.</i> A Polish coin, formerly worth about seven cents.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f8'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. <i>Sukmana</i>—a long coat worn by Polish peasants.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f9'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. Polish peasants, in order to keep their huts warmer in winter, +put round them a sort of palisade of laths over a yard high, the +space between is then stuffed with hay, dry leaves, boughs, etc., +often mixed with clay.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f10'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. <i>Soltys</i>—the village headman.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f11'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. Orthodox Jews are forbidden to light fires on the Sabbath, even +in winter. They therefore engage some poor woman to go round +and light their stoves for them on that day.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f12'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. <i>Dziad</i> signifies in Polish a grandfather, an old man, or an ancestor, +but is now mostly used to mean a beggar of a special type.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f13'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. <i>Magielon</i>, probably from “Magellan,” means a wild adventurer, +the hero of some tale of derring-do.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f14'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. <i>Barszcz</i>—pronounced “barshch”—a soup made of sour beetroots.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f15'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. <i>Yellow one.</i>—A nickname sometimes given to Jews by peasants.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f16'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. <i>Grosz</i>—the smallest Polish coin—about one-fourth of an American +cent.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f17'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. Four years in the Russian army, often in the very depths of +Russia, were wont to make havoc with a Polish peasant’s mother-tongue.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f18'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. <i>Hop-song</i>—a very primitive sort of nuptial song.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f19'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. Because it was a superstition: a very old one, no doubt, come +down from prehistoric times, and now all but dead in Poland, if not +quite so. Mickiewicz’s poem “Dziady” deals with something similar +which he came across in Lithuania, about a century ago.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f20'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. As Polish peasant-girls’ tresses are cut after the wedding, they +have a little domestic party the evening before, to which only girls +are invited, and the tresses are then unbound, ready to be shorn.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f21'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. The reader should bear in mind that this book was published +before the War, when only schools where Russian was taught were +permitted by the government, and Polish was not learned except in +secret.—<i>Translator’s Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f22'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. <i>Krupnik</i>—a drink made of vodka, hot water, honey and spices.—<i>Translator’s +Note.</i></p> +</div> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='xlarge'><i>Some recent American novels</i></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>BALISAND <i>by Joseph Hergesheimer</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'><i>author of</i> THE THREE BLACK PENNYS, JAVA HEAD, <i>etc.</i></p> + +<p class='c004'>This is Mr. Hergesheimer’s first novel in some years; it +will not disappoint his many thousands of admirers. The +Virginia of Washington and Jefferson, the century-old +struggle between politics and patriotism live again in the +life, loves and death of Richard Bale of Balisand.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.50</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>THE TATTOOED COUNTESS <i>by Carl Van +Vechten</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'><i>author of</i> PETER WHIFFLE <i>and</i> THE BLIND BOW-BOY.</p> + +<p class='c004'>With The Tattooed Countess Van Vechten takes on a new +importance as a novelist, for while this book is as +amusing as anything that has come from his pen it is also +a serious thoroughly original picture of American provincial +life a generation ago. It deserves the attention of +all who care for the American novel at its best.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.50</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>SOUND AND FURY <i>by James Henle</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'>A first novel by a young American and a work of real +distinction. The protagonist, a remarkably vivid character, +is an instinctive individualist, the sort of man who +must be a law unto himself. The inevitable conflict between +such a man and the American mob spirit that will +tolerate only conformity makes a novel of unusual +significance.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.50</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>THE ETERNAL HUNTRESS <i>by Rayner Seelig</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'>Woman, the eternal huntress, in her search for the father +of those children which shall be her gift to posterity is +the theme of this striking first novel by a young American. +It would be difficult to name another novel of recent +years that treats of the sex problems of the younger generation +as frankly and withal as cleanly and vividly.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.00</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>THE FIRE IN THE FLINT <i>by Walter F. White</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'>A first novel of unusual dramatic power dealing with the +Georgia Negro. A negro himself the author knows only +too well the countless barriers and humiliations heaped +upon his race, the inescapable conflict of white against +black. The incidents form an exciting narrative, dramatic +and very human.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.50</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>WINGS <i>by Ethel M. Kelley</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'>Does genius, brilliancy confer upon a man the right to use +the lives of lesser people in the making of his success? +<i>WINGS</i> is the “inside story” of the career of a brilliant +editor, of the women from whose love he built his ladder +to eminence. Miss Kelley gives us a remarkably vivid +picture of New York’s intellectual set.</p> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>THE TIDE <i>by Mildred Cram</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'>A novel of our materialistic young people. Mildred Cram +has a true perspective on fashionable New York. Lilah +Peabody, the heroine, marries wealth and position in the +firm belief that those two elements added make happiness +and when they do not satisfy her, she takes her own way +out. She is gallant, this Lilah, a charming schemer. A +real person and an interesting one.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.50</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>THE PROWLER <i>by Hugh Wiley</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'><i>author of</i> THE WILDCAT <i>and</i> LADY LUCK.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Once again Hugh Wiley scored a laughing hit with his +inimitable Wildcat Vitus Marsden and elusive Lady Luck. +From Pullman Porter to motion picture actor, from +familiar crap shooter to member of a Grand Secret Lodge, +the Wildcat prowls spreading infectious laughter as he +goes.</p> +<div class='c008'>$2.00</div> +<p class='c007'><span class='large'>THREE PILGRIMS AND A TINKER <i>by Mary Borden</i></span></p> + +<p class='c004'><i>author of</i> JANE—OUR STRANGER, <i>etc.</i></p> + +<p class='c004'>The success of Jane—Our Stranger in England and America +has won for Mary Borden a large and well deserved +American audience. This new novel is a story of that +part of England that lives to hunt, where women speak +with a marvellous gentleness to their horses and brusquely +to their children,—and men never speak at all. It is as +finely original and artistic a piece of work as we have +come to expect from her.</p> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div>Transcriber’s Notes</div> + </div> +</div> + + <ol class='ol_1 c015'> + <li>Footnotes originally appearing at the bottom of a given page have been moved together + to the end of the HTML text, save for the two footnotes on the title page. + </li> + <li class='c001'>Footnote 7 is missing “—<i>Translator’s Note</i>”, unlike + the rest of the footnotes in the main text. + </li> + <li class='c001'>Hyphenated words were silently joined across lines and + pages when the intended word was clear. + </li> + <li class='c001'>The following table notes the other material changes made + to the printed text, in order to correct apparent printing errors (punctuation, spelling, + quotation marks, repeated words), and to standardize spelling and hyphenation for + identical words to the more common usage across all four volumes. Changes are denoted in + [brackets]. +<table class='table0'> +<colgroup> +<col class='colwidth10'> +<col class='colwidth68'> +<col class='colwidth20'> +</colgroup> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><b>Page</b></td> + <td class='c016'><b>Text</b></td> + <td class='c017'><b>Operation</b></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_4'>4</a></td> + <td class='c016'>with out[-]stretched beaks</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td> + <td class='c016'>his shock of tou[z/s]led hair</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></td> + <td class='c016'>the church[-]roof and steeple</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> + <td class='c016'>to him, Yu[s/z]ka. He has</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> + <td class='c016'>Oh, dear! Oh[,] dear!</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></td> + <td class='c016'>on the thresh[h]old, bewildered</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td> + <td class='c016'>of a grind[-]stone that</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></td> + <td class='c016'>“Well[./,]” he said</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> + <td class='c016'>there is [W/V]eronka</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> + <td class='c016'>young whipper[-]snapper who</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> + <td class='c016'>like silver dew[-]drops, and</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> + <td class='c016'>instead of cho[o]sing a</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td> + <td class='c016'>was hoar[ ]frost on</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td> + <td class='c016'>orchard with the hoar[-]frost still</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></td> + <td class='c016'>like a sow![”]</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></td> + <td class='c016'>sun was up,[ up,] making the hoar[-]frost a dust</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></td> + <td class='c016'>on the cow[-]byre threshold</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td> + <td class='c016'>and water[-]drops dripped</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></td> + <td class='c016'>like corn[-]stalks in a sheaf.</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> + <td class='c016'>and having goose[-]flesh, mended my</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> + <td class='c016'>my dearest![’]</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td> + <td class='c016'>[“]Are you going</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td> + <td class='c016'>Squire of Dja[s/z]gova Vola</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> + <td class='c016'>red shoe[-]strings to</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> + <td class='c016'>outside the lich[-]gate. She was indeed</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_72'>72</a></td> + <td class='c016'>beyond Yule[-]tide—Well</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></td> + <td class='c016'>his skull[-]cap and</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td> + <td class='c016'>kopeks for each of them.[”]</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td> + <td class='c016'>a short, thick[-]set, curly-headed</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> + <td class='c016'>ashes. Then [K/F]ranek went off</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td> + <td class='c016'>cold of the hoar[-]frosts</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td> + <td class='c016'>distance. Or mighty horn[è/e]d heads</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td> + <td class='c016'>rattling panes[./,] and</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td> + <td class='c016'>previous to Yule[-]tide,</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td> + <td class='c016'>and brush[-]wood for</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td> + <td class='c016'>every high[-]way and</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> + <td class='c016'>at Yule[-]tide, or with</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> + <td class='c016'>his snuff[-]box to Boryna.</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></td> + <td class='c016'>lanes and court[-]yards were</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></td> + <td class='c016'>laugh. Thence[-]forward Boryna</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></td> + <td class='c016'>room in the court[-]yard</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> + <td class='c016'>the biggest pea.[ “/” ]This he said</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></td> + <td class='c016'>[“]Say a prayer</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> + <td class='c016'>Ambrose; [“]I say</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> + <td class='c016'>the melancholy cross[-]ways,</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></td> + <td class='c016'>[”/“]Yes, we have. Time</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td> + <td class='c016'>[“]Yagna blushed scarlet</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_129'>129</a></td> + <td class='c016'>woman in child[-]bed at the farther</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td> + <td class='c016'>soon as [b/h]e began</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></td> + <td class='c016'>you were a cow[-]herd</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_146'>146</a></td> + <td class='c016'>with me, Burek![’]</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></td> + <td class='c016'>and blooming[,/.]</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></td> + <td class='c016'>the dire[s/c]tion of</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_151'>151</a></td> + <td class='c016'>take place[,/.] They</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td> + <td class='c016'>sooner: not[h]withstanding, he</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></td> + <td class='c016'>grand one.[’/”]</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></td> + <td class='c016'>watchdogs in the farm[-]yards.</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></td> + <td class='c016'>his capote[,]</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></td> + <td class='c016'>Her step[-]children would</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></td> + <td class='c016'>not suffer loneliness!’[ ”] So Ambrose</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_161'>161</a></td> + <td class='c016'>straight talk with the man[,/.]</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_167'>167</a></td> + <td class='c016'>at the church[-]door now and then</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_192'>192</a></td> + <td class='c016'>sleep in the cow[-]house or the stable</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td> + <td class='c016'>side of the court[-]yard</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_200'>200</a></td> + <td class='c016'>whose white[-]washed walls now</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_208'>208</a></td> + <td class='c016'>used as a store[-]room</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_211'>211</a></td> + <td class='c016'>the noon[-]day meal</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_216'>216</a></td> + <td class='c016'>coming out of the sacris[t]y.</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td> + <td class='c016'>me!...[)] They</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td> + <td class='c016'>should grim Cross[-B/b]ones stare</td> + <td class='c017'>Replaced</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_232'>232</a></td> + <td class='c016'>wife and Va[c]hnikova made a</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_232'>232</a></td> + <td class='c016'>your corn[-]stacks piled</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_234'>234</a></td> + <td class='c016'>of the hey[-]day in the</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_235'>235</a></td> + <td class='c016'>their slumb[e]rous frost-crowned</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_240'>240</a></td> + <td class='c016'>deathly and corpse[-]like unconsciousness</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_241'>241</a></td> + <td class='c016'>you’ll not escape Cross[-]bones’</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_245'>245</a></td> + <td class='c016'>take me to the law[-]court;</td> + <td class='c017'>Added</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_250'>250</a></td> + <td class='c016'>matters before[-]hand and,</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#Page_256'>256</a></td> + <td class='c016'>to a blood[-]stained ax and</td> + <td class='c017'>Removed</td> + </tr> +</table> + </li> + </ol> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75846 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-01-31 18:02:00 GMT --> +</html> + diff --git a/75846-h/images/cover.jpg b/75846-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b5de5c --- /dev/null +++ b/75846-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75846-h/images/i_f003.png b/75846-h/images/i_f003.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12482fb --- /dev/null +++ b/75846-h/images/i_f003.png diff --git a/75846-h/images/i_title0.jpg b/75846-h/images/i_title0.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0945831 --- /dev/null +++ b/75846-h/images/i_title0.jpg diff --git a/75846-h/images/i_title0_s.jpg b/75846-h/images/i_title0_s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..68c297d --- /dev/null +++ b/75846-h/images/i_title0_s.jpg diff --git a/75846-h/images/i_title1.jpg 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