Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/283

Rh I'm absolutely crazy or else there's a screw loose in your head. How can I marry a workman now that you are a miller? And how can you marry me when you're sending the match-makers to Motria? What nonsense you're talking, man! Cross yourself with your left hand!"

"What do you mean?" answered the miller. "Do you think I haven't a workman at the mill? What about Gavrilo? Isn't he one? He's a little stupid, I know, but that will be all the better for us, Galya, my darling."

Only then did the girl at last understand what the miller was driving at with his cunning talk. You should have seen her throw up her arms and heard her scream!

"Oi, mother, dear mother, listen to what he is saying! He wants to turn Turk and to keep two wives! Fetch the pitchfork out of the cottage quick, while I settle him with my hands!"

So she fell upon the miller, and the miller fell back. He escaped to the stile, put one foot upon it, and said:

"Oho! So that's your game, little viper! Very well then, quit this hut with your mother! Tomorrow I'll take it for your ebts. Away with you!"

But she shouted back:

"Get out of my garden, you Turk, as long as it's mine! If you don't I'll scratch you with my