Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/426

 And after this he chooses according to his taste, and as seems best.

“This summer we shall have a merry harvest,” says the harvester.

“This summer! so I believe you. And when Staza leads off the dance for you! Such a mistress has not been seen on the farm as Stazicka.”

“She is a worthy mistress, pantata. Once Annette came here with us—you know, pantata, mnuh! her only fault is she does not know how she came into the world. And women being but women, they would not endure her among them. ‘How, then, is it her fault,’ said your little Staza. “We do not drive away an animal when it nestles against us, in what is Annette worse than an animal? And as you know, pantata, she took her as nurse to your pretty grandchild.”

“Just so, just so,” smiled old Loyka.

But the whole farm was quite on foot when there for a time came on a visit the gravedigger Bartos. “I begin to be aweary among the dead,” said he, “and since the living like me, I gladly come awhile among them. Well, and you like to have me with you?”

And it was a wonder they did not carry him on their shoulders, that is to say, if they could have borne his weight. And as they could not do this, they all hung upon him. Frank and Staza and the