Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/184



OLDIK’S horses found themselves best off while the passion of their master for Malka was on the increase until it reached its climacteric.

In those days Poldik was glad to draw rein from time to time, and took care of his horses both in the streets and at home, in order that he might be able to boast of them as his property, and mainly in order that he might jog along with them when Malka sat beside him in his cart. At that time Poldik’s horses were on the high road to transfiguration. Their ribs began to be cased in a light coating of flesh, their ears sometimes pricked, and their shoes made a deeper dint upon the ground. And Poldik’s comrades when they met him, looked at him with a pair of eyes in which were legible the words “Poldik is becoming quite a skilful groom.”

Here we must note in passing that Poldik occasionally took to horse doctoring, and that when he took pains with the horses, he generally succeeded.