Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/218

 than once we thought it was the cat scrattling at the door, and lo! it was a hare. Did you ever hear the like of that? On this I say to him, “Oh! grandfather, one summer you had your well froze hard.” At this he sat upright in astonishment just where he had been lying, and said, “Lord ha’ mercy! the well hard froze in summer time! No; I cannot remember it ever to have been hard froze in summer time in my young day. The Lord God be with us!”

At this all the neighbours laughed simple-heartedly, and each one confirmed by some instance the statement that old people like to discriminate between their times and ours. And now the Mayor beckoned to the bystanders that they should step quite close to him. And then he said not very loud “On this, I said to old Loyka, “Oh! grandfather, I am surprised to find that you do not know that you had your well hard froze in summer time.” “My dear good little gossip,” says he, “for many a long year now I have not ventured to draw water from my son’s well; his peasant wife does not allow it.” At these words a thrill of consternation ran through the group of listeners.

Vena, it is true, had not wound himself into the selecter circle, but, none the less, he exclaimed as though he had heard all that was said “Not allow him to draw water! The frog retires that the dog may lap, and a son shuts his well against his own father.”