Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/164

140 spacious inner apartments, with chambers and a kitchen. In the inner rooms were windows with panes of membrane. In the middle of each room, on a floor made of clay, was a fireplace from which smoke issued through holes in the ceiling. This ceiling was blackened completely. In better times it had served also as a smoking place, for on hooks fixed in the beams hung in those days hams of pigs, wild boars, bears, and elks, hind legs of deer, backs of oxen, and whole strings of sausage. In Bogdanets the hooks were now empty, as well as shelves along the walls, on which in other "courts" were placed earthen and tin plates. But the walls under the shelves did not seem now too naked, for Zbyshko had commanded his people to hang on them breastplates, helmets, short and long swords, and farther on, spears, forks, crossbows, and horse-trappings. The armor grew black from being hung in the smoke thus, and there was need to clean it frequently; but, to compensate, everything was at hand; and besides, worms did not gnaw the wood of lances, crossbows, and axehandles. Matsko had commanded to carry carefully to his own sleeping room all valuable clothing.

In the front chambers, near the windows, were tables of pine plank, and benches of like material on which the masters sat down to eat with the servants. For men unaccustomed during long years of war to comforts, not much was needed. But in Bogdanets, bread, flour, and various other supplies were lacking, and especially utensils. The peasants had brought in what they could. Matsko had counted mainly on this, that, as happens in such cases, neighbors would aid him; and indeed he was not mistaken, at least not in Zyh.

The second day after his arrival Matsko, wishing to enjoy the serene autumn weather, was seated on a log before the house, when Yagenka rode into the yard on the same horse which she had ridden at the hunt. The servant, who was cutting wood near the fence, wished to help her dismount, but she sprang down in one instant, panting a little from swift riding, and ruddy as an apple she approached Matsko.

"May He be praised! I have come to bow down to you from papa, and to ask about your health."

"It is not worse than on the road," answered Matsko; "a man has slept in his own house at least."

"But you must feel much discomfort, and a sick man needs care."