potatoes.

Between the hills the thirteen-year-old Jendrek[1] minds the cows and
performs strange antics meanwhile to amuse himself. If you look more
closely you will also find the eight-year-old Stasiek[2] with hair as
white as flax, who roams through the ravines or sits under the lonely
pine on the hill and looks thoughtfully into the valley.

[Footnote 1: Polish spelling, _Jedrek_ (pronounced as given,
Jendrek, with the French sound of _en_): Andrew.]

[Footnote 2: _Stasiek_: diminutive of Stanislas.]

That gospodarstwo--a drop in the sea of human interest--was a small
world in itself which had gone through various phases and had a history
of its own.

For instance, there was the time when Josef Slimak had scarcely seven
acres of land and only his wife in the cottage. Then there came two
surprises, his wife bore him a son--Jendrek,--and as the result of the
servituty[1] his holding was increased by three acres.

[Footnote 1: _Servituty_ are pieces of land which, on the
abolition of serfdom, the landowners had to cede to the peasants
formerly their serfs. The settlement was left to the discretion of the
owners, and much bargaining and discontent on both sides resulted
therefrom; the peasants had to pay percentage either in labour or in
produce to the landowner.]

Both these circumstances created a great change in the gospodarz's