Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/407

 “We will be here on call early to prepare ourselves,” said the reaper and took his leave.

Old Loyka turned to his friends and said, “I know very well that Joseph will not be pleased, but why should I not exasperate him a little? Just let them come. Of course, I shall still employ them.”

After this he said, “Still Joseph does not come hither to drive me away?”

“He is not coming,” said Frank.

“Then if he is not coming, let me go into the courtyard,” and they led him into the courtyard.

In the courtyard the servants of old Loyka saluted him, called him ‘pantata,’ and, in general, behaved towards him very respectfully. Old Loyka inspected the field implements, inspected the house and was evidently well pleased.

He went to the chambers by the coach-house, there all was just as it had been in his time. The family of the kalounkar, only a few inches taller and perhaps with one or two additions to its numbers; the cloth pedlar, a little shrunken, and the harpers and fiddlers with the same instruments, only that perhaps, they too, were already a little shrunken. All welcomed old Loyka with smiles and pretty speeches, and one of them said that now all was once more just as it used to be in the old days.

Then they begged Loyka to come and sit down with them. After this they began to relate about things past and present, and what changes there