Page:Balkan Short Stories.djvu/203

Rh man won’t give me the girl, until I am safely written down in the land-book.”

“Are you really so much in love with her?” I ask.

“Of course, I love her. She is good. She can do all kinds of work.”

“The affair can drag itself out even when the proclamation of the division has been made. After that comes the appellation. That can last months and months, and even when that is finished there can be another delay in handing over the land to you. Say that you will take less. Perhaps it will expedite matters.”

The boy looked at me suspiciously. I knew how the peasants cling to every inch of ground. “If you are so much in love with the girl—and if you know by taking less the settlement can be hastened—then do it.”

The boy looked down upon the ground for a long time as if he were estimating every bit of dirt, and replied: “Very good! I’ll do it then!”

That very day he went to the city.

But even now the affair was not hastened. Janko’s house-companions tried to slip out of the agreement, and when the engineer made the divi-