"Thou art right; I wanted of thee a favor to which I have no claim. But even I feel wearied at last of all this,--to take something here and thrust it in there; to live eternally in such a whirl passes human power in the long run. I am sailing, as it were, into the harbor. In two months I shall be on a new footing, but meanwhile I am using the last of my steam; 'tis not in thy way to oblige me; the position is difficult. There is a small forest in Kremen; I will cut that and pay, since there is no other way." "What forests are there in Kremen? Old Plavitski shaved off everything that could be taken." "There is a large oak grove behind the house, toward Nedzyalkov." "True, there is." "I know that thou and Bigiel take up such affairs. Buy that forest; it will spare me the search for a purchaser, and he and thou can come out of the business with profit." "I will discuss it with Bigiel." "Then thou wilt not refuse in advance?" "No; if thou give it cheaply, I may even take the forest myself. But in such matters I need to calculate the possible profits or losses; I want also to know thy terms. Make thy own estimates. Send me thy list; how many trees there are, and what kinds." "I will send it in an hour." "In that case I will give thee an answer in the evening." "I advise thee beforehand of one thing,--thou wilt not have the right to cut oak for two months." "Why is that?" "Because Kremen will lose greatly by losing that ornament; hence I propose that it be resold to me after the marriage, of course at a good profit to thee." "We shall see." "Besides, I have marl in Kremen; thou hast spoken to me of this. Plavitski reckoned it at millions,--that, of course, is nonsense; but in the hands of clever men it might be made a paying business. Think that over, too, with Bigiel; I would take thee into partnership." "Should the business seem good, we may take it; our house exists to gain profit." "Then we will talk of the marl later on; but now I return to the oak. Let the general outline of our bargain be this,--that I, instead of the first payment, give thee the oak grove, or a part of it, according to estimate. I give it in some sense in pledge, and thou art obliged not to cut trees before the close of the following quarter." "I can do that; evidently there will be questions later on as to removal of the oak, which we shall mention when writing the contract, if, in general, we write one." "Then there is at least one burden off my head," said Mashko, rubbing his forehead with his hand. "Imagine that I have ten or fifteen such every day, not counting conversations on business with Pani Kraslavski, which are more wearying than all else, and then waiting on my betrothed, who"--here Mashko interrupted himself for a moment, but suddenly waved his hand, and added--"which also is not easy."