Page:Czechoslovak stories.pdf/298

 “Why do you persist in dancing with such a clumsy fellow? You trip so lightly and we’d like to take you for a few turns ourselves,” the boys shouted to Barka, but only in mockery and never in earnest, just to see what she would say. They would not have taken her to dance for a great deal unless they intended to insult and anger their own sweethearts.

But Barka always cut them off sharply.

“Just you take whomever you please for a turn. I’ll keep Matýsek and I’ll not let you abuse him either. He knows how to weave an Easter whip of forty strands, he can make a broom, and a battledore for a shuttlecock as well. Everybody doesn’t have to go ramming his head into idlers for beauty or to crush rocks with their hands.”

And again she was with Matýsek in the whirl and whoever failed to turn briskly enough, him would she take by the elbow and shove out so effectually that he wondered what world he was in and how he got there. Matýsek was much pleased with Barka’s agility and he continued in low whispers to indicate others for her to jostle out of the circle, chuckling meanwhile till he nearly choked. He used to say to Barka afterwards when he escorted her home that he wouldn't want another girl, not even for all of Jerusalem, and that he’d stay faithful to her even if brides from Prague itself would send him word to come to marry them.

If Matýsek’s mistress gave him cheese on his bread at the Sunday meal, he ate the bread and saved the