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caused much mirth among the people that Matýsek and Barka wished to get married! She almost reached to the ceiling, whereas when he sat down to the table, his head was barely visible above it. She laughed from morn till eve, whereas he was always pouting. She would have charged ten Prussians single-handed, while he dropped his eyes and blushed a deep red whenever anyone glanced at him without warning. Barka was always contented with things as they were in whatever form they came, she accepted them. When things were at the worst, she would remark, “Well, never mind!” and soon forgot her trouble. Matýsek, on the contrary, remembered things for a long time and at even a trivial circumstance he would whine, “Too much is too much!”

Whenever people saw them together, they always marvelled how these two came to care for each other

It began when they were both still watching flocks. They used to drive their herds to the same pasture. As soon as Matýsek’s two goats were feeding, he paid