Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/220

 recognised that what he had said was at least true as regarded the Loykas.

Here one man said “Only what surprises me is that old Loyka was so contented when he fared so ill as a pensioner.”

“Ah! well! well!” said the Mayor, in elucidation of the mystery. “It is easy to be content when one has the wherewithal. He had good reason to be content. He had money enough for himself alone, about which he was wont to say “While that exists, I need never beg anything of anyone.” And well that he had it, and not well that he had it. Well, because his son, the hospodar, frequently kept back his pensioner’s share of the crop, and the old man might have been reduced to real distress if he had been kept waiting for it; not well, because on the other hand old Loyka, when the law bore him out, forced his son to pay every quarter of grain due. From this money sprang their differences. And then all that he could spare was laid by, and now Loyka’s Frank gets it all.”

“That boy will cut a figure in the world,” said some one. “He quite hung on his grandfather, and was at his house all day and all night long, until even his mother was angry with him for it. I maintain that he loved his grandfather more dearly than he loved either his father or his mother.”

“And where pray will you find children who do not love their grandfather and grandmother more