'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 field,' he thought, 'I could sleep more.' He had been meditating on this while harrowing over a fresh bit for half an hour, when he heard his wife calling from the hill: 'Josef, Josef!' 'What's up?' 'Do you know what has happened?' 'How should I know?' 'Is it a new tax?' anxiously crossed his mind. 'Magda's uncle has come, you know, that Grochowski....' 'If he wants to take the girl back--let him.' 'He has brought a cow and wants to sell her to Gryb for thirty-five paper roubles and a silver rouble for the halter. She is a lovely cow.' 'Let him sell her; what's that to do with me?' 'This much: that you are going to buy her,' said the woman firmly. Slimak dropped his hand with the whip, bent his head forward, and looked at his wife. The proposal seemed monstrous. 'What's wrong with you?' he asked. 'Wrong with me?' She raised her voice. 'Can't I afford the cow? Gryb has bought his wife a new cart, and you grudge me the beasts? There are two cows in the shed; do you ever trouble about them? You wouldn't have a shirt to your back if it weren't for them.' 'Good Lord,' groaned the man, who was getting muddled by his wife's eloquence,' how am I to feed her? they won't sell me fodder from the manor.' 'Rent that field, and you will have fodder.' 'Fear God, Jagna! what are you saying? How am I to rent that field?' 'Go to the manor and ask the square; say you will pay up the rent in a year's time.'