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 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.
“Well, so you have been to his Reverence again: and what has come of it?”
“And what should come? Nothing. I might have heard just the same in church.”
“What else did you think to get?”
“Why, he knows a great deal,” Antek replied in self-defence.
“As to taking, yes; as to giving, no.”
Antek was in no mood to contradict him.
“I am going to your cabin,” he said after a pause.
“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.”
Antek had not so much as heard him, as he made straight for the house which stood opposite.
His sister was kindling the fire, and her eldest boy, at the table, learning out of a spelling-book.
“Is he studying?” he asked; for the boy spelt aloud, pointing to each letter with a sharp stick.
“Yes. He began at potato-digging-time. The young lady from the mill is teaching him, for my husband is too busy.”
“Roch, too, began teaching on Father’s side of our cabin yesterday.”
“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.”
“Oh, yes. Yes,” he answered, in order to say something.
“Johnny gets on so fast with his primer that the young lady is astonished.”
“Oh, of course. It’s the smith’s blood, you see—being the son of so clever a man. …”
“You are jeering. And yet was he not right to tell you that Father can, so long as he lives, withdraw any settlement made?”
“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!”
“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.
“Who told you that?”
“Hush, hush! That’s what people are saying.”
“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.
“Then what’s to be done? You give clever advice to everybody; advise me.”
“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:
“You—you are on his side!”
“I want to be fair.”
“You have been well paid for this.”
“Not out of your pocket, at all events.”
“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.”
“I have had no more than you.”
“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?”
“You might have got it just as well as I.”
“I am not a gipsy, nor a thief!”
“A thief! Do you call me that?”
They both rushed forward, ready to spring at each other. But they stopped, for Antek went on more calmly:
“I was not speaking of you. But never will I abandon my rights, even to be saved from utter ruin.”
The smith interposed, with a jeer: “It is not the land, I fancy, for which you would go to such lengths.”
“For what then?”
“It is Yagna you want, and rage to lose her now!”
“Did you ever see … ?” he cried; the shot had hit the mark.
“There be those who have seen … and not once only.”
“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.
“That you stand up for him is no wonder: he has given you drink and sausages in plenty!”
“No careless talk, pray; I, the Voyt, am speaking to you.”
“For your Voytship I care as I care for this broken stick!”
“What!—what has the man said?”
“You have heard; and if not, you shall hear other things which will go yet farther.”
“Say them, then, if you dare!”
“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.”
“Take care you rue not what you are doing, Antek; I am a man in office!”
“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.
“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.
When Antek went to the barn afterwards to chop
