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 without providing for her in some way. So, after a while, the prior said—

“‘For you I would be glad to do something—but only for you, because I know you are so worthy of it. We have a cook in the house—Naninka—who, it’s true, is no longer young; but she knows how to cook perfectly, and is a very proper, honest person altogether. The care of our large household is a little too much for her already; but for you alone she’d be the very thing, and would suit you just as one eye does another. She is a very pious, good soul, and I think if I asked her she’d go with you, perhaps on the spot. Stay with us to dinner, my dear fellow, and after that we can speak to her. I think you’ll have reason to thank me for her.’

“Cvok knew Naninka by sight, and thought to himself, ‘She is an experienced, reliable person, and that is certainly worth something. Then he asked, merely for talk’s sake, ‘Has Naninka any relations?’

“‘She is as lonely as a pole in a hedge,’ the prior answered.

“‘After dinner, then, we will speak to her,’ said Cvok.

“And so they did. The result was that to please the prior she consented to go; and the same evening Father Cvok brought away spinster Naninka with her trunk and bedding to Záluz̓í. Since that time they keep house together faithfully. But you may be sure the housekeeping, such as it is at poor Father Cvok’s, will never cost Naninka either a headache or heartache. In any other place she would not do, of course; but at Záluz̓í no stray guest ever drops in to table.”

“Is Cvok so miserly, then?”

“Oh no; anything but that. He’d give himself and all he has in the world to any one that wanted it. But