of horses, in spite of his lameness.

After that, with the exception of the yellow dog Burek, no additions
were made to Slimak's household, neither children nor servants nor
property. Life at the gospodarstwo went with perfect regularity. All
the labour, anxiety, and hopes of these human beings centred in the one
aim: daily bread. For this the girl carried in the firewood, or,
singing and jumping, ran to the pit for potatoes. For this the
gospodyni milked the cows at daybreak, baked bread, and moved her
saucepans on and off the fire. For this Maciek, perspiring, dragged his
lame leg after the plough and harrow, and Slimak, murmuring his
morning-prayers, went at dawn to the manor-barn or drove into the town
to deliver the corn which he had sold to the Jews.

For the same reason they worried when there was not enough snow on the
rye in winter, or when they could not get enough fodder for the cattle;
or prayed for rain in May and for fine weather at the end of June. On
this account they would calculate after the harvest how much corn they
would get out of a korzec,[1] and what prices it would fetch. Like bees
round a hive their thoughts swarmed round the question of daily bread.
They never moved far from this subject, and to leave it aside
altogether was impossible. They even said with pride that, as gentlemen
were in the world to enjoy themselves and to order people about, so
peasants existed for the purpose of feeding themselves and others.

[Footnote 1: A _korzec_ is twelve hundred sheaves.]