“Roch laughed, and, preparing to depart, said:
“ ‘The cow’s your own: have no fear! None shall take her from you.’
“Then I thought she was his gift, and fell at his knees to thank him; but he shrank back.
“ ‘And if you should meet Mr. Yacek,’ he continued with a smile, ‘beware of thanking him: he’s a man to lay about him with a stick, for he loves not to be thanked.’ ”
“Then ’twas Mr. Yacek who gave you the cow!”
“Is there another man in the world so kind to poor folk?”
“True, it was he gave Staho the timber for his hut, and helped him in so many other ways.”
“A holy man he is, no doubt, and daily I will pray for him.”
“But take heed lest any should steal her from you!”
“What, steal my cow? I would go over all the world to seek her, and tear the thief’s eyes out! Our Lord would never permit such a wrong!—While Simon is building the shed, I’ll have her in to sleep with us every night. And Yasyek’s dog, Kruchek, will take care of her.—O my dear one, O my darling!” she cried, taking her round the neck and kissing her pink muzzle; while the animal uttered a faint gurgling sound, the dog barked with joy, the fowls cackled for fear, and Simon whistled louder than all.
“Beyond all doubt, then, ye are blessed of the Lord,” Yagna said, looking intently at them both, with a sigh of something like compunction. They both seemed changed beyond recognition; Simon especially. He had always passed for an incapable fellow, who bore the blame of all that went wrong; and anyone that cared to wipe his feet on him could do so.—And now! Able in speech, wise in his acts, and dignified in his bearing, he was really not the same man! …
After a long silence: “Which are your fields?” she inquired.
Nastka pointed them out to her, telling her what they were going to sow, and where.
“But whence is the seed to come?”
“Simon says we shall get it; and so we shall. Because he speaks no idle words.”
“He’s my own brother; but what ye say seems told of someone else!”
“So good, so clever, so hardworking! … There’s none like him, none!” Nastka declared most emphatically.
“Surely,” Yagna mournfully assented.—“And whose are those fields with the mounds marking their boundaries?”
“Antek Boryna’s. Not worked at present, though, for they await the division of the farm.”
“There will be a goodly bit of land for them, and a most comfortable holding.”
“Oh, may our Lord, for their kindness to us, render them back tenfold! Antek stood surety with the Squire for our payment of the instalments, and has helped us in many another way.”
“Antek! … Surety for payment!” She was astounded.
“And Hanka is not less kind: she has given me a young sow. ’Tis only a sucking-pig now, but of good stock, and will grow up to be of great use to us.”
“Indeed, you tell me of a marvellous thing. Hanka give you a sucking-pig? ’Tis simply incredible.”
They returned to the hut, where Yagna, having taken a ten-rouble note out of her kerchief, handed it to Nastka.
“Here’s a trifle. … I could not bring it before … the Jew had not yet paid me for my geese.”
They thanked her very warmly, and Yagna said, on leaving:
“Wait a little; Mother will relent, and let you have some of the property.”
“I do not want it! 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.
About halfway home, she met Matthew. He was going to his sister, but went back with her and listened attentively to what she said of Simon.
“Not all men are so well off,” he remarked gloomily.
They talked on, but he did not feel at his ease. He was longing to say something to her, but embarrassed how to say it; Yagna was meanwhile looking down at Lipka, bathed in the sundown glow.
Then he said: “In this narrow little world, I feel stifled to death!” He was almost speaking to himself.
She turned to him with a questioning look.
“What ails you? Your face is as wry as if you had been drinking vinegar!”
On that, he told her how he loathed his life and the country and all things, and was determined to go away and wander forth into the world.
“Why, if you will have a change, then marry!” she said, laughing.
“Aye, if she of whom I think would but have me!” he cried, staring eagerly into her eyes; but she, confused and unpleasantly impressed, looked aside.
“Ask her! Anyone would be glad to marry you: more than one already expects your messengers.”
“And what if she should refuse me?—The shame—the pain of it!”
“In that case, you’d send your men with vodka to someone else.”
“I am not that sort. I would only have one, and cannot turn to another.”
“Oh, a young man has much the same liking for every girl, and would fain come to close quarters with them all.”
This he did not deny; but presently, changing his mode of attack:
“Yagna, you know that the boys only wait for your mourning-time to end; men will at once be sent to you with vodka.”
“Let them drink it themselves! I’ll marry no one of them!” she declared, with so much energy as to made him think deeply. She spoke her mind: she cared for none of them; only for Yanek—her Yanek!
The thought of him made her sigh, and she gave herself up to it with delight, while Matthew, baffled, went back to his sister.
And Yagna looked into vacancy with wandering eyes of unrest, saying to herself:
“What—what is he doing at this moment?”
On a sudden, someone had seized and was hugging her close in his arms. She struggled violently.
“Will you not console
