Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/152

128 we reach Bogdanets I will go at once in the night with an axe to a bee's-nest."

"Maybe Yagenka has bear's fat; if not, I will send elsewhere to look for it."

"What Yagenka? But was not yours Malgosia? "inquired Matsko.

"Oo! what Malgosia? On Saint Michael's it will be the third autumn that Malgosia is lying in the priest's field. She was a grand housekeeper—the Lord light her soul! But Yagenka is like her, only she is young.

"Beyond the valleys shine the mountains; As the mother, so the daughter— Hots! hots!"

"But to Malgosia I used to say, 'Do not climb pine trees when thou art fifty years old.' She would not obey me, she climbed. A limb broke under her, and flop! she dug a hole in the ground I tell you; but in three days she gave out her last breath."

"The Lord light her!" said Matsko. "I remember, I remember—when she put her hands on her hips and looked threateningly the boys hid in the hay. But as to housekeeping she was accurate! And to think that she fell from a pine tree! Do you see people!"

"She flew down like a pine cone in winter. Oi, but there was grief! Do you know? after the funeral I got so drunk from sorrow that they could not wake me for three days. They thought that I too had turned my toes upward. And how I cried!—you could not have carried out my tears in a pail! But as to management, Yagenka is accurate. All is on her head now."

"I hardly remember her. When I went away she was not taller than an axe-handle. She could walk under a horse without touching its belly. But that is long ago, and she must have grown up."

"On Saint Agnes day she finished her fifteenth year; but I have not seen her either for nearly a twelvemonth."

"What were you doing? Whence are you coming?"

"From the war. It is captivity for me to sit at home when I have Yagenka."

Matsko, though sick, pricked up his ears eagerly at mention of war, and asked,—

"Were you, perhaps, with Prince Vitold at the Vorskla?"

"I was," said Zyh, joyously. "Well, the Lord God