Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/218

 twins. When there were six already! That was no small matter.

Then at last his bitterness had given way for a moment. Who knows but what God had sent him these two little angels to help him? If he were to tell the overseer of this increase in his family, and two at once. That must move his heart, even if it were made of stone. Otherwise he would not have said a word, but now that the twins had come He wished he had bitten off his tongue rather! Evidently his words had gone home and touched the overseer, but all the same he had shrugged his shoulders: ‘he had no use for a drunkard who might do harm, kill somebody or endanger the issue of the newspaper. And so far as he was concerned, Kuba might have triplets.’

After these two long weeks his stubborn fury had for the first time given way to sorrow on this last night at his work, while he was cleaning his machinery until it looked like the inside of a watch seen through a magnifying glass. For the last time! And yet he had always seen single-handed to this part of the work, and never failed in one of his duties.

But when the machinery had started, and began to roar with a thousand wild sounds,