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'What do you propose to do now? asked old Gryb between his blows. 'I'll mend my ways....'I'll marry Orzchewski's daughter, wailed Jasiek. 'Perhaps this is not quite the moment for that, said Grochowski, 'first you will go to prison. 'You don't mean to charge him? asked his father. 'I should prefer not to charge him, but the whole neighbourhood is indignant about the robberies.
'It's agreed, then, said Gryb, 'and now I'll tell you what you will have to do in return. You will pay a hundred and fifty roubles to Grochowski and a hundred to Josel. Slimak demurred. 'I haven't buried my wife yet. The old man's temper was rising. 'Rubbish! don't be a fool! How can a gospodarz get along without a wife?
But I shall say you nay. And Gryb, in the name of them all, had answered: 'The goat will come, your honour, when you throw your forests open. The squire had said nothing, but his trembling moustaches had warned them that he would not forget that answer. 'I always told Gryb not to talk with a long tongue, Slimak sighed. 'Now it is I who will have to suffer for his impudence.
When Gryb hears of it, he comes and abuses Josel! "You cur of a Jew, you Caiaphas, you have crucified Christ and now you are cheating me! You told me the Germans wouldn't pay up, and here they are!" Whereupon Josel says: "We don't know yet whether they will stay!"
'You don't take us into your confidence about your business affairs, so mind you keep out of ours. 'It's not only your affair, but concerns the whole village. 'No, it's nobody's but mine, snapped Gryb. 'It's mine just as much. 'That is not so! Gryb struck the table with his fist: if I don't like a man, he shan't buy, and there's an end of it. The publican smiled.
While Gryb and Orzchewski sorrowfully conducted each other home, they comforted themselves with the thought that the surveyor might only be spending the night in the village on his way elsewhere. 'God grant it, I want to see that young scamp of a Jasiek settled and married, and if I let him out of my sight he goes to the dogs directly. 'My Paulinka is a match for him; she'll look after him!
Josel's smiling face was hovering over them and now and then old Gryb and his son Jasiek jeered from behind a cloud. He sat up...startled. But there was nothing near him except the white hen under the box and the trees by the wayside. He spat. 'Bah...dreams! he muttered. The peasants were relieved when day after day passed and there was no sign of building in the camp.
'But she is worth it! said the Soltys. 'Still, money sits in the chest and doesn't eat. 'Neither will it give milk. 'I should have to rent the field. 'That will be cheaper than buying fodder. A long silence ensued, then Slimak said: 'Well, neighbour, say your last word. 'I tell you, thirty-five paper roubles and a silver rouble. Gryb will be angry, but I'll do this for you.
Yours is dead and gone, and if she could speak, she would say: "Marry, Josef, and don't turn up your nose at a benefactor like Gryb." 'What are you quarrelling about? cried Grochowski. 'Look here, I am offering him my sister and fifteen acres of land, four cows and a pair of horses, to say nothing of the household property, and he can't make up his mind, said Gryb, with awry face.
'What's true is true, said Grochowski; 'even Gryb ought to understand that the cow ought to be where the girl is. 'Then sell her to us, Slimak said quickly. Grochowski dropped his spoon on the table and his head on his chest. He reflected for a while, then he said in a tone of resignation: 'There's no help for it; as you are quite, decided I must sell you the cow.
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