Page:The disobedient kids and other Czecho-Slovak fairy tales.pdf/41



After a little while, the old man came along, panting and blowing. Seeing the woman in the field, he called out, "Woman, have you seen two children go by and which way did they go?"

The woman pretended that she was deaf, she answered, "I am in the flax field pulling up the weeds."

"Woman, I ask you, if you have seen two children pass this way."

But she continued, "I shall weed the flax, until it is ripe."

Raising his voice, "Listen to me"extra inverted commas in the original text [sic], woman, have you seen two children go by here?"

"When we shall have gathered the crop, we shall clean the seeds, and then moisten the flax", said the woman.

This time the man fairly shouted, "Stupid, don't you understand me? Have you seen two children pass this way?"

"When we have moistened the flax, we shall spread it out in the sun to dry", she kept on.

"Woman, are you deaf? Have you seen two children pass this way?"

"After the flax is dried, we shall comb and then hackle it."

"Don't you hear? Have you seen two children?"

"Then when the ﬂax is hackled, we shall bind it on the distaff ready for spinning."