Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/104

 But what is a reasonable being to say of Lukas, who boasted on his wedding-day to everybody that his bride ran away and joined the smugglers rather than grant him a single kiss before their wedding? You should have seen how proud he was of this, how he praised her and showed her off with delight.

Can you guess who banged away the loudest at the wedding when the usual shots were fired? Vendulka had many groomsmen, six riding alongside of her, and the seventh was best man. But more gunpowder than was used by any of these young fellows was turned into smoke by old Matouš. He held a pistol in each hand and fired two shots at the same time. When the other guests passed him, he stood still and banged away so that the gossips under the lime tree were wellnigh deafened.

Martinka, who was his companion, only smiled when he occasionally pointed his pistol at her head for fun. When Vendulka had asked him through Martinka to join the wedding-procession for the sake of the old friendship, he had asked himself why he shouldn’t have a wedding of his own as well? And he decided to leave the business with its daily toil and burden to his sons, and made