Page:Balkan Short Stories.djvu/198

186 “Is the hoeing heavy? The ground—is hard and lots of weeds? That’s the way it is with us. Everyone is complaining. I worked hard today, too. Early I went to the mountains for the wooden pegs which were cut the week before last. Then I hoed some and later I went to the river for water. If it hadn’t been for that I should have reached here earlier.”

“I thought you were not coming any more. And then I thought again: it is far; it takes two hours at least. So I waited.”

“What have you done?”

“I have spun. Mother and sister made fun of me. But—good—you see you have come."

“Did your mother know I was coming?”

“I told her.”

“Your father, too?”

“No. Why should I? He would be mad. He says it is not right for you to come so often, because the Zadruga had not been settled. Father says in your house they quarrel all the time, and he wouldn’t like to have me go there.”

“That’s true. The devil knows what they mean. Ten times I have been to the city for the land set-