Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/161

 And it was pleasanter by the shore, boats laden with sand lay to, and smaller skiffs kept circling round them, and in these smaller boats were wherrymen punting about. The distant view upon the water, too, everything was better than yonder by that lofty deserted wall.

On the Quay Malka was considered in the light of Poldik’s future bride, and thus many a joke passed between them and the folk there present when Poldik took his dinner from Malka’s basket.

The next day Malka brought the dinner straight to the shore. And she was still more pleased with the scene than she had been the day before. I know not what called Poldik away for a moment, but in his absence Malka stole down close to the water’s edge, and said half to herself “How I should like a trip on the water.”

I also know not whether these words were a simple soliloquy, but they caught the ear of one of the wherrymen, who gallantly replied “Sit down in my skiff, and we will have a lark.” Malka looked at him, and did not answer. Perhaps she considered the whole affair a joke. But the wherrymen understood it for earnest. “Only just a minute” said he,“before Poldik comes back we will be ashore again.”

Before she expected it the little skiff lay close by the shore at Malka’s feet. She need only take one step forward, and she would be afloat. The