Page:Poet Lore, volume 26, 1915.djvu/305

 Králíček.—That isn’t our costume, that’s from Silesia or Kladsko.

Dvořák (Caustically).—And yet I’m from Krčín. I am the son of Dvořák—that Dvořák who moved to Kladsko.

Kyral.—On account of religious faith and vexation to the nobles. He ran away from an estate, like hundreds of others.

Matouš.—Hear! Hear!—a Calvinist! His father thrashed a nobleman’s musketeer.

Kyral.—And is your father living? And are you his son?

Dvořák.—He still lives but winter is coming into his body and his head is as white as the cottage roof at Christmas time!

Matouš.—A Calvinist! Have nothing to do with him! (Walks away from him.)

Kyral.—And how are you and the other Bohemians there, getting along?

Dvořák.—Oh, we get along! We have preserved our religious belief, but we are losing our language. We are sinking like a cradle with a child in it during a flood. Oh, I wonder that God can look down on all that violence!

Kyral.—He would have many cares, my son, if he tried to protect one against all the vileness.

Dvořák.—There and here also! I was a child when we ran away to Kladsko. Do you know why?

Kyral.—I know, I know. It’s just the same as elsewhere; the nobility, during a wet summer, demanded double vassal service. Dvořák was well-to-do and wouldn’t go to serve on Sunday and when they came for him with chains, he beat up the musketeer, threw him out on the verandah and that very day he ran away from the estate with his wife and two children.

Dvořák.—He bought a small estate near Kladsko. He sent me to school and at home he brought us up to love our mother country which I had scarcely known. He also taught us to hate the nobility. I grew up and with fervent heart hastened to Bohemia. Under an assumed name I went to Krčín to view the home under whose roof I was born. But it exists no longer. The nobleman’s servants avenged the musketeer, burned the buildings—and my fathers’ fields—the over lord united to his own.

Kyral.—And what then do you seek in this country? Don’t go into New Town! If they should recognize you there, you