Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/24

 will be beating, if she knows for whom they were tolling.’

‘Lukas won’t wait before he marries again, and it wouldn’t be sensible if he did. The cowshed full of cattle, the house full of servants, and a small child in the cradle—a man cannot do long without a woman in the house under those circumstances. When the six weeks of mourning are over, and the last mass has been said for the deceased, he is sure to go straight to old Paloucky’s and ask for her.’

They had not been mistaken. Everything happened exactly as the gossips under the lime tree had made out.

Six weeks after the death of his wife, on the day on which the last mass had been said for her soul, the widower and all his male relations —according to the uses, or rather abuses, of our country—went to the inn, to drink off his sorrow. He remained there with them till dinner time treated them to the usual sumptuous meal. When this was finished, he thanked them all for giving him their company on this and on the day of the funeral, and begged them for their further friendship. They, of course, promised this readily with