Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/383

 On this occasion Bartos rid himself of Joseph by a sarcasm, and this sarcasm was more properly a very serious blow. “I had not thought,” he said to Joseph, “that you would offer yourself as village messenger to the bureaux so long as we had Vena for the purpose. But it is all of a piece with the rest of your hospodarship. You bow the messenger out of your house, and turn messenger yourself—before I die I still expect to see you turn kalounkar (tape pedlar)”.

Bartos, as we know, had never far to go for an answer, and generally had the laugh on his side. Thus it came to pass that everyone lost who measured his strength with him even before he was ready himself with a suitable retort. Having heard Bartos say his say, people did not wait to hear how his adversary would defend himself: they were convinced that every one who began a dispute with Bartos would be worsted either by fisticuffs or some smart repartee.

And so the neighbours gave way even here to quite audible laughter, looked at one another, turned right about face, took their way to Frishetts, and on the way smilingly observed that Joseph wanted to be a village messenger or a kalounkar (tape pedlar).

Joseph then was far from successful on this occasion, he not only became hateful to his neighbours for the want of respect which he had shown towards his father, but he became still more an