Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 162.djvu/154

142 were men who had to go to the Jew every year for money to buy their boots and shirts; and there were many households where, when spring came round, the garners were empty of corn, and who had to scrimp and fast till after harvest-time; there were even men who beat their wives, and used hard words towards them, but Filip Buska was not that sort of man. He had never said a harsh word to Magda, and he only used his strong, muscular arms for legitimate work. More than once Magda had had occasion to rejoice at her superior luck, when, late on Saturday nights, she had seen her neighbor, the careworn and overworked mother of seven children, leading home her reeling and drunken husband from the spirit-shop, where he had probably left more than half of his week's earnings. It would therefore have been very ungrateful on Magda's part, if she had not considered herself an exceptionally lucky and fortunate woman. She was dissatisfied with herself when she caught herself envying the handsomer sheepskin fur of some other woman, or when she heaved an involuntary sigh on meeting some other couple returning from church or market affectionately linked together. She knew very well that the sheepskin coat had not yet been paid for, and that the affectionate husband would most likely beat his wife when he reached home; yet over and over again she caught herself thinking that she would like her husband to hold her round the waist as that other man was doing, and that for the sake of a little more affectionate demonstration on his part, she would readily agree to put up with her share of counter-balancing blows. Blows could only make her back ache for an hour or two, but the placid indifference which always marked Filip's manner towards her was leaving an ache in her heart which grew stronger as time went on. Perhaps it was only the instinctive spirit of discontent which possesses many women, and makes them wish for what they have not got. Men are generally accused of not understanding the other sex; but how on earth is a man to guess that his wife is pining because he does not beat her?

During the first year of their marriage, Magda had made many attempts to draw nearer to her husband, to share his interests and occupations, but her efforts had met with but scanty reward. Encouraged by his brilliant success as a coffin-maker, Filip had latterly given up more and more of his time to carpentry; and though rabbit-hutches and pigeon-houses could not, of course, be as remunerative as coffins, yet their fabrication during spare moments always brought in a welcome addition to the weekly earnings.

Recollecting what Filip had once said of Julka's useful service in that way, Magda had sought to imitate her example, and had often lingered about the shed which her husband had converted into a rough workshop; but for the most part he had seemed hardly aware of her presence, and never addressed her unless she made some mistake or knocked down one of his tools. Once when in a fit of zeal she had volunteered to plane a board for him, she had cut her wrist so severely that for a fortnight she had been unable to milk the cow.

"You are not fit for that sort of work, Magda," he had said, not unkindly but coldly; "you are too impatient to make a good carpenter. You will be of more use if you bide indoors and mind the children and the cooking. I can do my work alone."

Once in returning from market where a litter of sucking-pigs and some heads of poultry had realized an exceptionally high price, she had ventured to ask her husband whether he would not this year add another string of corals to her necklace.

He looked at her with surprise.

"More corals! What do you want more corals for? You have two rows already."

"But almost every woman in the village has three at least. Even Pawel Wodak, who has ten children and can scarcely feed them, gave his wife a new row last fair."

"More fool he," answered Filip. "Julka had only two, those same two that you wear, and she never thought of asking for more. She was not one of those silly wenches, like many in the village, who deck themselves out to make other women jealous, and to attract the eyes of the young men at church."

Magda thought to herself that Julka's plain freckled face had not been likely to disturb the peace of the church-goers of either sex, and perhaps she felt conscious that her glowing beauty deserved a richer frame than these two scanty rows of coral beads, for she answered, —

"Julka was different."

"Yes; Julka was a sensible woman," said Filip, and there the conversation was dropped; and when some minutes later her husband remarked, "I was thinking that next month, when the cow calves,