The Peasants quotes

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.

’ ”

“

Boryna has no wife, everything he has goes as through a sieve.

”

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.

“Wait a little, Yagna!”

the latter called after her, greeting Boryna.

Yankel, however, at last convinced him, and they came to an understanding about the gun which the Jew was to supply; although Kuba was firm in refusing to give him the oats demanded.

“My father was not a thief; neither am I.”

“Now go away, Kuba; it is time, and I have still some prayers to say.”

Autumn was growing ever more and more autumnal.

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.

Autumn was growing ever more and more autumnal.

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.

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;

“But I’d do no work in the fields.”

“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.

“I have always told my wife that you, Father, loved justice.”

“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:

“Yet his children too ought to be considered; they have their rights,” Hanka rejoined.

“Better to leap into the deep than cumber another man’s wagon,” Yagustynka muttered.

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.

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!

“He is not a man, he’s a whirlwind,” she mused blankly. “Can there be such another in the whole world?”

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;

“You have been away these six months,” she stammered.

“Six, and twenty-three days besides, is the true reckoning.” He did not drop her hand.

“I shall get a light!” she cried; for it was really getting dark, and she wanted to free her hands.

“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 farmhands.

“Only fools look for justice in this world. Anyone who can, may right his own wrongs.”

“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!”

“By law, yes; but in justice, it belongs to them as well.”

“My dear friend, justice is always for him who has the power to get it on his side.”

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.

“Yes; Dominikova is shrewd, and will manage that.”

“She is a mother,” Klemba put in, “and even a bitch will defend her own puppies.”

Thus, all the afternoon, the people in the village were talking the matter over.

“Oh, but I am hale—good for a score of years yet. Never you fear!”

“ ‘Never-Fear was eaten by the wolves.’ ”

“Well, I am glad you speak out! Would you have me settle on her the three acres I have, close to Luke’s field?”

“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!”

“Yes, you’ll butt your head against a stone wall, like a ram, but never get it smashed, eh?”

the smith said, coming in.

“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.

“ ‘When dogs have too much bread, each flies at t’other’s head,’ ”

he grunted.

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.

In the cottage, the hubbub was ever increasing, with the constant arrival of many a dame—now a kinswoman, now a housewife:

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.

Burning down like a candle, the day was slowly approaching extinction.

The village of Lipka, however, was inspired with all the animation of a fair.

“How the old fellow flaunts his wantonness! Beside him, a cock is nothing at all.”

“Oh, he is enjoying himself, Grandfather Boryna is!”

“As a dog does out in the frost,” old Simon here muttered spitefully.

“Their father was of the like mould: I remember well.—Aye, and the old woman was in her time no better than Yagna.”

“As the root is, so the boughs; as the mother, so the daughter.”

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:

“ ’Tis ill living here on earth! Things are out of gear with mankind, and we have naught but grief!”

“Aye, men are like dogs, snapping at one another for a bone.”

“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!”

“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!”

“Yes; for he that is deaf to the commandments hath a quick ear for the music played in hell.”

“It was otherwise of old days.—Then was there obedience, and respect for old men, and concord.”

Dumb, and with feeble sunbeams, the day peeped in through the chinks, and a flood of shimmering motes appeared at the open doorway.

Hour after hour dragged by at a snail’s pace, like lame, blind, and dumb beggars, crawling painfully through toilsome beds of deep sand.

Only, now and again, a few chirruping sparrows, swooping down on the stable in a noisy band, would boldly make for the mangers.

“

Some crows may be white, but none has ever seen any.

”

To bear the yoke thus was irksome beyond words: he choked and strained in bonds, as a horse tethered in a paddock, or as a chained-up dog might do.

He thought of himself as a fruit-tree, broken by the gales, condemned to die, withering slowly in the midst of a blossoming orchard full of lusty life.

And Lipka—Lipka went on as usual. There were christenings, as at the Vahniks’; betrothals, as at the Klembas’ (though now they had no music, they took as much enjoyment as was allowed in Advent);

Yes, everyone lived as he pleased, as seemed best to him and was fitter both to himself and his neighbours, and according to the commandments of God.

And he, Antek, stood alone, outside of them all, cut off from humanity; like a strange bird, hungry, yet afraid, that will perhaps flap its wings outside the lighted windows, and long to draw nearer to the corn-filled stacks⁠—and yet does not: only wheels around, listens, feeds on its hunger, gulps down its thirst, and never will draw nigh!

Unless—unless God should deign to work in him a change that might last forever, and make him a new creature!

Yes, time had flowed by like a river: the wedding, the homecoming, her various occupations and the cares of her household duties, had left her no time to think of him.

Out of sight, out of mind; and her acquaintances had avoided all mention of his name.

And now, she knew not why, he had surged up suddenly before her with so sad and reproachful a look that her very soul within her was shaken and distressed.—“I have done no harm to you,” she said within herself;

“Because you’re as yet a silly child, and your head is full of nonsense.

A man without land is like a man without legs: he crawls about and cannot get anywhere.

—But, at any rate, say nothing of this to Matthias; it would vex him.”

Were it true that of old there came from heaven those who protected the wretched and saved them from the oppressor: then why do they not come now too? Is there now less of poverty, less of misery, less of torture and of pain?

Man is like a poor bird, unarmed, and let loose to fly about the world.

The hawk, the beasts of prey, and want of food slay it; and him Crossbones always takes in the end.—And ye prate of mercy, and feed fools with promises, deluding them and saying that salvation is at hand!—Ah, who is at hand?—Antichrist!

“

Talking of this will do as much good as incense burnt to bring the dead to life.

”

“Here? In such a storm it were hard to keep a dog out of doors; and he has freely chosen to come?”

“ ‘Who must, will go, even through storms of snow.’ ”

“Yes, who must.” She smiled sceptically.

“Peace, lest talebearers hear you!”

“Nothing that I could hear; but others might.”

“It is unbearable—my heart is torn asunder!”

“Go yourself. With you I will not go.—Away, I tell you!” he cried in a threatening voice. Then, on a sudden, moved by some unaccountable impulse, he came close and hissed in her ear:

“Were I chained and fettered in a prison cell, I should still be more free than with you beside me⁠—far more!”

Hanka withdrew at once, weeping bitterly.

He drew up the blanket over his chest, turned his face to the wall, and answered not one word more to all her heated arguments; only, when she at last burst into tears, he whispered mockingly:

“ ‘If a woman’s tongue fail, she thinks tears will prevail.’ ”

On the point in discussion, he had come to a strong conviction. Whilst he was laid up, the things he had heard of old against Yagna had all come back to him:

And that is why the manor would willingly come to an agreement with you. The Squire told me as much: he is a good man, and would fain arrive at a neighbourly understanding with everyone. …”

“When a wolf is your neighbour, you can only come to an understanding with a club or an ax!”

The priest started, shocked at the words, and looked him steadily in the face; but, seeing the cold relentless expression of his eyes and his set lips, turned away hastily, and rubbed his hands, much upset.

Yet, though things returned to their former state, the former peace of mind, the deep quiet trust of old, was there no longer.

As when a broken vessel has been repaired with wire woven around it, it indeed looks whole, yet somehow leaks and lets the water through, though the place of leakage is invisible to the eye: so was it likewise in that hut

: from within that reconciliation, and through unseen fissures, the secret mistrust it contained came forth by drops; and though resentment was no more so keen, suspicion still remained alive and undying.

To her call, Filipka answered in surly fashion:

“Hanka is like a dog speeding after a crow⁠—thinks she will get it if she hastes.”

“Poor thing!” murmured Krakalina, sympathetically; “how she has come down in the world!”

only the gleam of her tearful azure eyes still betrayed an intensely emotional soul.

“Suffering shapes the soul as the smith shapes iron⁠—and sooner.”

Her reply amazed him so, he could find nothing to say to it, and turned round to Ambrose to talk about the lawsuit with the manor. In spite of the Voyt’s promise, he had lost, and had to pay costs into the bargain.

“Ah, yes,” Kobusova grunted.

“ ‘Wherever the poor man goes, the wind against him blows.’ ”

“Alas! Hanka has come down indeed. …” Ploshkova was beginning to say, but stopped and talked of something else on seeing how red Yagna had turned.

He answered, somewhat sadly, but with wisdom, pointing out to them so many a deep truth and holy maxim that they all sighed, and fell to reflecting on the ways of God’s providence in this world.

“Yes,” said Klemba, “today is ours; tomorrow belongs to the Lord!”

But Roch was tired, and needed some rest. As all were highly interested in the wonderful tales told, each began, at first in whispers, and then aloud, to tell of such things as they too had heard.

… enchantments and bright wonders—between them and the real world, making it fade away, with the cabin, and the thick black night—this world of troubles, miseries, wrongs, tears, unfulfilled desires—and opening their eyes to that other world, far more majestic and beautiful than tongue can tell!

They had entered the world of the Fabulous; the life of the Fabulous surrounded them with its rainbow tints; the fables of Dreamland had become realities for them.

They were dying with a rapture in which they yet found a new life—the great new life, abounding and sacred, merged and plunged in the Miraculous:

And this abominable weather made folks think less and less about the late fire; the more so, because neither Boryna nor Antek nor Yagna excited curiosity by appearing in public.

Thus did the event fall into oblivion, as a stone falls into a stream; the water swirls and eddies over it, ripples, breaks, trembles⁠ ⁠… and flows calmly on as before.

And so things went on until Shrove-Tuesday, the last day before Lent.

He looked round, as though to find help; but there was now an empty space round him, lined only by menacing or terrified faces.

The folk shrank from him, as from one stricken with the plague.

—And now the priest cried aloud, calling him to repentance, beseeching, imploring, adjuring him.

And of other and meaner trees, who can say which and how many were laid low?

Groaning, the forest was slowly giving up its life as the trees fell

:

crushing, tearing, wallowing on the ground! And there was no longer any noise of cries, but only low groans, curses, and the panting of the stubborn fight.

A tremendous day it was, a day of wrath.

The people seemed to have lost their heads, so greatly were they all infuriated by conflict. Kobus in particular, and Kozlova, looked like demented creatures, horrible to see, covered with blood and bruises, yet still attacking any number of enemies single-handed.

Cocks presently vied with one another, crowing in the yet invisible hamlets.

The last stars went out, closing their tired and sleepy eyes.

And now a glow was kindled in the East, as when they blow on embers half quenched in the ashes.

With what eyes of mercy did she glance beneath the thatches, and awake to life the chilled and palsy-stricken hearts of men, who now—in this hour of longed-for consolation—put aside their griefs and sombre broodings, and dreamed that a happier lot might yet be theirs!

The land resounded with life, as a bell long silent, when given a new tongue.

It was the sun’s gift, and the magnificent peal rang out and boomed with clamorous joy, waking timid hearts and singing of things most marvellous, until it found an echo in every soul. Tears started to every eye:

“

Ah, this dumb creature has more feeling than many a man!

… Now, Pete! Time to rise!” she cried, beating on the stable-door, until she heard a grumbling and the sound of a bolt shot back; thereupon she opened the cow-byre door, where the kine were lying in a row before their mangers.

But it was now past noon, and the cows had to be milked; so she heaved a sigh, and ended her prayers.

Sighs were but sighs: work was duty, and must come first.

On her return with brimming pails, she found everybody back home again. Yuzka told her about the sermon, and the folk that were at church; and presently the room became very noisy;

“Do not speak of work in return: ’tis a gift I make you from my heart.” She lowered her voice. “

Well do I know poverty: it is a dog whose teeth bite deep.

”

Dominikova rebuked her tartly: “You laugh at everything, you!”

“Shall weeping lessen my pain? My laughter is all my fortune.”

Ambrose remarked: “Let those only that have sown evil garner in sorrow, and atone for it by penance!” This was a shrewd hit at Dominikova, who retorted, glaring on him sternly:

“Ah, but ye are of use to the folk, and of no little use. Were it not for your wise head and kind heart, I cannot tell what would become of us.”

“Could I do all I long to do, there would be an end of suffering on earth!”

He threw out his arms with a gesture of pained helplessness, and hastened away to the Voyt’s dwelling. But it was long before he got there; cottage after cottage attracted him.

He felt her lips tremble as she kissed his hand. He was amazed: she had usually been on skirmishing terms with him.

“To everyone,” she said further, “there comes a time when, like a stray dog, driven away by all folk, one is glad to be caressed by some kindly hand.”

And ere he could find a word to reply, she hurried away.

The poor hungry creature needed no pressing. Ravenous as a wolf, she set to, and swept the platter clean.

“When the Lord Jesus created the pig, He knew well what He was doing!”

she exclaimed, after a few mouthfuls; adding, as a gentle hint in the form of a joke: “Strange, though, that men let it wallow in the mud during life, and are afterwards so willing to wash it in vodka!”

“But he that careth only for daily bread shall not sit at the table of our Lord. …

“Who only complaineth of evil, and doth no good, he maketh the evil worse.”

He spoke long, but in words of wisdom hard to bear in mind; in a voice ever lower and more loving he spoke, until the darkness quite swallowed him up. Then it seemed as though some holy being were speaking from beneath the ground:

“Whence should she get the strength? Too little food, too little sleep, and every year a baby!”

“Hard times! Harvest over the hills and far away, and dearth at our thresholds!”

“Thresholds, say ye? Nay, within doors, and choking the life out of us!”

Here Ambrose blurted out thoughtlessly:

“A christening without the father is like a sin without absolution!”

This opened the floodgates of Hanka’s grief, until the women presently drank to comfort her, and gathered her into their arms with great compassion. Presently she was soothed, begged their pardons, and asked them to take something to eat.

“Why, a month’s change has come about in a week!”

“Spring rides a swift horse; there is no overtaking it.”

“How green all round is, O Lord! how green!”

the ploughs, still rusty, cut deep into the soil, turning up their first black glossy furrows. And the people, drawing a long breath, crossed themselves, cast their eyes over the fields, and stooped down with a will to labour and to toil.

It was like a huge church in which the service had just begun.

With what piety did they bend over the glebe! with what profound devotion and trust in Mother Earth did they cast forth the sacred seed, that was to bring forth much fruit on the morrow!

and the sound of Yanek’s voice echoed in her ears. And she clung with all the force of her will to those yearnings of her memories: they made such sunshine in her heart!

For her nature was that of the wild hop, that for its growth and blossoming and life, must needs twine round some other plant; else, left without support, it falls and perishes.

The komorniki, having flung whispers about to their hearts’ content, were now taking kerchiefs and aprons off their heads, because it had grown warm; they talked louder among themselves, and stretched their limbs, yawning and longing for the noonday rest.

Some komorniki, too, were taking heifers that were but recently with calf.

Misery has long legs and sharp claws;

and Gregory the Wrymouth had to sell a milch-cow, though he possessed eight acres; while his neighbour Joseph Vahnik was driving a sow with all her farrow.

If ye do, Yasyek will not believe what they say. He has been yearning for you; easily will you make him believe anything! Matthew has had a liking for your bed, but is not bound to it: get rid of him while you can. …

A love! it passes by in a moment, as yesterday has passed: were you to lay down your life for it, it would not stay.

A love—’tis but a Sunday dainty: who feeds on it daily will care not for it at all.—Folk say: ‘Love of heart makes us smart: when we wed, then we’re dead!’—It may be;

All stood open-mouthed, lost in amazement; till Matthew, recovering himself first, burst out with a loud guffaw.

“Clever men promise, fools believe them!⁠—He has not where to lay his head, yet talks of giving cabins to others!”

he cried roughly, staring at him under his bent brows; but Mr. Yacek sat down again, went on smoking and playing with his beard, his eyes fixed on the skyline.

Klemba laughed.

“The wolf,” he said, “changes his life when his teeth are gone.”

“Or,” Matthew added, “when he thinks of settling down.”

As he puffed, his mind reverted to the late talk.

“Who stands up for others, shall have many bothers!”

he growled.

“

Men only see what is under their noses.

”

“

Each one tries to hurt everyone else: ’tis hard to bear life here.

”

“

Work on one’s own land is never hard toil!

”

“

Why, we should take root in the soil, like trees; let him pluck us thence who can!

”

The whole land was now plunged in the deep stillness of repose.

The village lights had gone out one by one, like eyes that close in slumber.

The moon rolled up the soaring black-blue sky, sown with a twinkling dust of stars, and rose higher and higher, as a bird that wings its way athwart the void on silver pinions. The scattered clouds slept, huddled up into balls of soft white down;

But as in this rainy weather there was a great deal of work to do, she dashed her tears away. “Come, good people!” she cried. “

Should the greatest man in the world die, he is like a stone in the depths of the sea⁠—never to be fished up again; and the land will not wait, and we must toil and till it.

”

“ ‘

Knaves, ridden by knaves whom knaves drive: such are they all!

“ ‘Trickery is everywhere, and fraud, and cruel oppression, and such thieving! Set but down what ye hold in your hand, they will snap it up at once!

“Look ye, I will do just as I choose. Wherefore should I be ashamed? ‘

The wallet’s his mother, who has Hunger for brother.

’ ” At those words he jerked himself free from her, darted away among the horses and carts, and disappeared.

“But I do! Were it not for Yankel, we should not even get the potatoes and salt we eat.—Ah, ’tis a true saying: ‘

Goodman Bellyful thinks no one is hungry.

’ ”

“

Ask the bird you let go out of your hand: ye will see!

… Did you hear the banns published?”

“Fiddlesticks! all that has naught to do with the case. Your unbridled tongues are wagging, not for the sake of Justice, but from envy and spite!”

When you thrust a stick into a wasps’ nest, they all fly out at you: so did the women at him.

“Oh, indeed! what is there in her to envy, say? That she’s a light-o’-love and a wanton? That ye all run after her like dogs? That you long for her, every one of you?

“Perchance ye do: ye are beyond man’s understanding.

Worn-out old besoms ye are, who would hate the very light of the sun!

Had she but been like that Magda, the tavern wench, and done the worst of things, you would have forgiven her; but simply because she is the fairest of all, you’d all like to drown her—aye, and in a spoonful of water too!”

The fields beyond were flooded with low-lying greyish fogs, out of which only the highest treetops surged, like pillars of thick black smoke.

The pond glistened in the darkness like a huge sightless eye, fringed with lashes of alders that rustled around it, while all the neighbourhood slept, wrapt in the fog’s opaque invisibility.

Hanka sat down close to the house, leant back against the wall, and fell into a doze. When she again opened her eyes, she saw with astonishment that the night had gone; the clouds were all burning red like a distant conflagration.

But he could not sleep. He lay looking up at the stars that twinkled overhead, and listening to the quiet footsteps of the night … and … making up his mind about Yagna.

“Neither with nor without her can I live!”

He cursed her under his breath, and sighed in pain, turning from side to side, throwing off his covering, and wetting his feet to cool them in the long dewy grass. But no sleep came, and his thoughts persecuted him as before.

“Quite a Manor house, I see, you have in mind!” she replied in an unpleasant tone.

“Better dwell in one’s own hovel than live in another man’s house.”

“Ploshka’s wife desires us to spend the winter with her: she has offered us a room with a willing heart.”

Let her take the injury she has done me down to her grave with her!” Simon burst out, so suddenly and with such vehemence that she left without one word more, and went home, moody, depressed, and not a little out of sorts.

“What am I? A dry stick that no one cares for,”

she sighed forlornly, as she went.

“Be still, good folk, be still!” growled the head.

The sheep were getting lively, and the wolf was biding his time.

“Those infernal talkers! they will talk the people to its ruin!”

catching their breaths, cursing low, and one or other of them every now and then uttering such words as these:

“Every creature has its own voice; we alone are forbidden our own!”

“Always commands, and naught except commands! Obey, and pay, and sweep the ground with your hat, you peasant!”

the thickets around him thrilled to the many voices of living things, and from the fields came the grasshoppers’ concert, alternately loud and faint: till, after a time, all these sounds were hushed and silenced, as it were, in the sunshine’s hot downpour.

Silence reigned; all animated life hid away from the desolating heat⁠—all except the swallows, that were darting and dashing and flashing about evermore.

His eyes ached with the intensity of the heat, and even in the shadow he felt parboiled.

Sultry silence prevailed: no man was visible; no bird, no living creature anywhere in sight. Not a leaf, not a blade of grass trembled.

It was as if the Demon of Noontide had swooped down upon the country and, with husky lips, were sucking all the strength out of the swooning earth.

Antek walked on, still more slowly, thinking of the assembly: now furious with anger, now laughing with scorn, now heavy with discouragement.

why should he trouble about things that concern him less! Ah, poor people, so benighted, so miserable! They do not so much as know what they need!” And his heart went out to them, afflicted at the thought of their misery.

“Swine find it hard to raise their snouts to the sky⁠—and so do men!”

So he thought, sorely troubled, but yet got no profit of his pain, further than the feeling that he himself was in as bad a case as anyone else—perhaps worse.

“Swine find it hard to raise their snouts to the sky—and so do men!” So he thought, sorely troubled, but yet got no profit of his pain, further than the feeling that he himself was in as bad a case as anyone else—perhaps worse.

“Only those can live their lives contentedly who never think!”

He waved his hand with a gesture of despair, and then walked on, plunged in so deep a reverie that he nearly stumbled over a Jew—a ragpicker—sitting at the edge of a cornfield.

“Poor little mite! How thin they have made you! How pale, poor son of mine! and how wretched-looking!”

“One does not grow fat on broth of holy water!”

he answered, laughing, and tossing his little brother up in the air, till he crowed with delight.

“I did not see him; he must have passed at some distance.”

“Child, folk in a village can see things through walls⁠—even things that have not taken place!”

She laid stress on the words, looking down on her twinkling knitting-needles.

And from that time, a hundred pair of eyes spied all Yagna’s doings still more closely than ever.

So many hounds in pursuit of one hare!

Yagna, thus constantly watched by prying eyes, went her way quite unconscious; nor would she have cared in any case, having the bliss of seeing her Yanek daily, and losing her whole being in his eyes.

“Say, is it not truly beautiful?”

“Aye, very beautiful; very like a sermon!”

His eyes flashed and his cheeks flamed, as he held forth to her about the poem, and quoted many a passage, describing the fields and forests. But she broke in:

His eyes flashed and his cheeks flamed, as he held forth to her about the poem, and quoted many a passage, describing the fields and forests. But she broke in:

“Why, every infant knows that trees grow in the woods, that water flows in the rivers, and that men sow the fields; wherefore, then, put such things in print?”

Yanek started, astonished and displeased.

“What’s here?—A sick child?” he said, taking a step towards Yuzka.

“Yes. She has been lying there for a couple of weeks: smallpox.”

He retired hurriedly into the passage.