Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/185

Rh "I will aid thee an thou wilt," said he, "but only if thou dost permit me……"

The maid was cunning.

"Willingly," said she.

And she armed herself with the head of an old pike, which lay about the garden, its jaws open. Picking it up, she thrust it in her sleeve and said to the lad:

"I do not wish to come to thy side of the hedge, nor do I wish thee to come to mine, lest any see thee. Do it through the hedge. Pass me thy yard and I will put it in."

The youth drew out his yard and passed it through the hedge. The girl took the pike's head, opened it, and put it 'twixt her thighs. When the youth rubbed, he scratched his yard so that it bled. Taking it in his hands, he ran to the house, sat down in a corner, and was very silent.

"Ah! woe is mine!" thought he to himself. "How her coynte biteth! If only my yard will heal, for the rest of my life I will never address another girl!"

Came the time for the youth to settle down; he was affianced to the daughter of the neighbour, and they were wedded. They dwelt together for a day, then two, then three; they dwelt together for a week, then a second, then a third; but the youth feared to touch his wife.

Constrained one day to go to the house of the young man's mother-in-law, they set out on their way. On the road the wife said to her husband:

"Listen, now, my dear little Danilka. Why hast thou married since thou dost naught with me? If thou canst do naught, why spoilest the life of another in this useless fashion?"