for the field, and kiss his hands, and embrace his and the lady's feet
so that he may let you off at least three roubles. Will you remember?'

'Why shouldn't I remember?'

He was obviously repeating his wife's admonitions, for he suddenly
stopped eating and tapped the table rhythmically with the spoon.

'Well, then, don't sit there and think, but put on your sukmana and go.
And take the boys with you.'

'What for?'

'What for? They are to support you when you ask the squire, and Jendrek
will tell me how you have bargained. Now do you know what for?'

'Women are a pest!' growled Slimak, when she had unfolded her carefully
laid plans. 'Curse her, how she lords it over me! You can see that her
father was a bailiff.'

He struggled into his sukmana, which was brand new and beautifully
embroidered at the collar and pockets with coloured thread; put on a
broad leather belt, tied the ten roubles up in a rag and slipped them
into his sukmana. The children had long been ready, and at last they
started.

They had no sooner gone than loneliness began to fill Slimakowa's
heart. She went outside the gate and watched them; her husband, with
his hands in his pockets, was strolling along the road, Jendrek on his
right and Stasiek on his left. Presently Jendrek boxed Stasiek's ears