Selected Polish Tales | Page 8

jockey cap made him look uncommonly like a crane.
'What does he want now?' thought Slimak. The horseman was evidently
asking Slimakowa a question, for she got up and raised her head.
Slimak noticed for the first time that she was in the habit of tucking up
her skirts very high, showing her bare knees.
'What the deuce does he want?' he repeated, objecting to the short skirt.
The cavalier rode off the bridge with no little difficulty and reined up
beside the woman. Slimak was now watching breathlessly.
Suddenly the young man stretched out his hand towards Slimakowa's
neck, but she raised her stick so threateningly that the scared horse
started away at a gallop, and the rider was left clinging to his neck.
'Jagna! what are you doing?' shouted Slimak; 'that's the squire's
brother-in-law, you fool!'
But the shout did not reach her, and the young man did not seem at all
offended. He kissed his hand to Slimakowa and dug his heels into the
horse, which threw up its head and started in the direction of the
cottage at a sharp trot. But this time success did not attend the rider, his
feet slipped out of the stirrups, and clutching his charger by the mane,
he shouted: 'Stop, you devil!'
Jendrek heard the cry, clambered on to the gate, and seeing the strange
performance, burst out laughing. The rider's jockey cap fell off. 'Pick
up the cap, my boy,' the horseman called out in passing.
'Pick it up yourself,' laughed Jendrek, clapping his hands to excite the
horse still more.
The father listened to the boy's answer speechless with astonishment,
but he soon recovered himself.

'Jendrek, you young dog, give the gentleman his cap when he tells you!'
he cried.
Jendrek took the jockey cap between two fingers, holding it in front of
him and offering it to the rider when he had succeeded in stopping his
horse.
'Thank you, thank you very much,' he said, no less amused than
Jendrek himself.
'Jendrek, take off your cap to the gentleman at once,' called Slimak.
'Why should I take off my cap to everybody?' asked the lad saucily.
'Excellent, that's right!...' The young man seemed pleased. 'Wait, you
shall have twenty kopeks for that; a free citizen should never humble
himself before anybody.'
Slimak, by no means sharing the gentleman's democratic theories,
advanced towards Jendrek with his cap in one hand and the whip in the
other.
'Citizen!' cried the cavalier, 'I beg you not to beat the boy...do not crush
his independent soul...do not...' he would have liked to have continued,
but the horse, getting bored, started off again in the direction of the
bridge. When he saw Slimakowa coming towards the cottage, he took
off his dusty cap and called out:
'Madam, do not let him beat the boy!'
Jendrek had disappeared.
Slimak stood rooted to the spot, pondering upon this queer fish, who
first was impertinent to his wife, then called her 'Madam', and himself
'Citizen', and praised Jendrek for his cheek.
He returned angrily to his horses.
'Woa, lads! what's the world coming to? A peasant's son won't take off

his cap to a gentleman, and the gentleman praises him for it! He is the
squire's brother-in-law--all the same, he must be a little wrong in his
head. Soon there will be no gentlemen left, and then the peasants will
have to die. Maybe when Jendrek grows up he will look after himself;
he won't be a peasant, that's clear. Woa, lads!'
He imagined Jendrek in button-boots and a jockey cap, and he spat.
'Bah! so long as I am about, you won't dress like that, young dog! All
the same I shall have to warm his latter end for him, or else he won't
take his cap off to the squire next, and then I can go begging. It's the
wife's fault, she is always spoiling him. There's nothing for it, I must
give him a hiding.'
Again dust was rising on the road, this time in the direction of the plain.
Slimak saw two forms, one tall, the other oblong; the oblong was
walking behind the tall one and nodding its head.
'Who's sending a cow to market?' he thought, '... well, the boy must be
thrashed...if only I could have another cow and that bit of field.'
He drove the horses down the hill towards the Bialka, where he caught
sight of Stasiek, but could see nothing more of his farm or of the road.
He was beginning to feel very tired; his feet seemed a heavy weight,
but the weight of uncertainty was still greater, and he never got enough
sleep. When his work was finished, he often had to drive off to the
town.
'If I had another cow and that