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 to catch and chain the lightning and thunder and it submits, why shouldn’t you be able to devise a cage to catch the wind?”

Sometimes Matýsek would suddenly cast aside the broom he was making and would stretch himself out on the bench behind the table.

“I don’t have to work if I don’t want to, do I, our Barka? No one has a right to give orders to me nor to you either. Leave your spinning and come, sit beside me at the table. Let’s have a game of cards, a little smoke and a bit of something to drink.”

“Well, why not?” Barka agreed with him, and leaving her spinning wheel, she went to the cupboard for pipes, cards and glasses. The pipes were lighted, Barka poured some bitter brandy into the glasses, shuffled the cards and they played, smoked and sipped to their hearts’ content. As a matter of fact, Matýsek at first did not even know how to play cards or smoke, and it was all he could do to swallow the bitter brandy, for he was accustomed only to whey. But Barka kept telling him that he would always miss something if he did not learn to take a drink now and then, to play cards and smoke. Finally he consented to try it. But she had to agree to try it all with him, for without her he would none of it, and when she wished to have him continue at it as was fitting for a fully qualified master of an estate who expects the esteem of people, he would not have it otherwise than that she, too, should continue beside him smoking and sipping.