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 another doubt. “But why should the gentlemen run after you?”

“Oh, that’s all a part of it!” the young man drew himself up boastfully. “Only that they won’t run, but will come in style in a carriage and then I will ride away with them!”

“You will ride?—That’s getting better all the time, boy! When our rich men give one a ride, then it's sure to end well! Well, hurry up and speak!”

“Speak, speak! But you don’t let a man get in a word. Well, then listen. I’ve made an agreement with the gentleman that I’ll sell him this hut.” The young man spoke rapidly as if to have the confession out.

“What? What’s that you said, in God’s name?” shrieked the old man and leaped up as if a hornet had stung him.

“Well—now—I’m speaking Czech and loud enough, too,” growled the son peevishly, angered by his father’s terror, which augured nothing good.

“But still I did not understand you, Joseph! Say it again, I beg of you,” pleaded the older man in an appeasing tone.

“Well, I was saying that I’m going to sell the homestead to the gentleman. He needs a place for a building. He needs the garden and also the field beyond it.”

“Needs? Needs? And what is it to you that he needs it?” the old man echoed in a threatening voice,