Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/156

132 "God grant him to leave me the men," said Matsko.

"Oh, of course! What are five men to such a rich person as he is? Besides, if Yagenka asks him, he will leave them."

Here the conversation ceased for a moment, since above the dark pine wood, and above the ruddy dawn the bright sun rose and lighted up the country. The knights greeted it with the usual "May He be praised!" and then, making the sign of the cross on themselves, they began morning prayers. Zyh finished first and striking his breast repeatedly, said to his companions,—

"Now I will look at you carefully. Hei, you have both changed! You, Matsko, must return to health, the first thing. Yagenka will nurse you, as there is no woman's care in your house. Yes, it is clear that a fragment is sticking between your ribs—and that is not very good." Here he turned to Zbyshko. "Do thou show thyself too— Oh, God of might! I remember thee as a little fellow, how thou wouldst climb over a colt's tail to his back; now, by all the— What a young knight! He has the clean lip of a stripling, but what shoulders! Such a man might close with a bear."

"What is a bear to him?" said Matsko, in answer. "He was younger than he is to-day when that Frisian called him a naked lip, and he, as that name did not please him, plucked out the Frisian's moustache right there."

"I know," said Zyh. "You fought afterward and took their retinue. Povala told me all.

"'The German went out with great splendor, But naked his snout when they buried him, Hots! hots!'"

And he looked at Zbyshko with amusement in his eyes. Zbyshko, too, looked with great curiosity on Zyh's figure as tall as a pole, at his thin face with immense nose, and his round eyes full of laughter.

"Oh," said he, "with such a neighbor, if God would return health to uncle, there would not be any sadness."

"With a joyous neighbor there can be no quarrels," said Zyh. "But listen now to what I will say, in good, Christian fashion. You have not been at home for a long time; you will find there no order. I will not say in the land management, for the abbot has done well—he has cleared a strip of forest and settled new men on it. But, as he has visited Bogdanets only occasionally, the storehouses will be