Slimak crept to the bench where Stasiek lay and touched his feet. 'Is that you, daddy?' the boy asked, waking up. 'Yes, it's I.' 'What are you doing here?' 'I'm just sitting down; something is worrying me inside.' The boy put his arms round his neck. 'I'm so glad you have come,' he said; 'those two Germans keep coming after me.' 'What Germans?' 'Those two by our field, the old one and the man with the beard. They don't say what they want, but they are walking on me.' 'Go to sleep, child; there are no Germans here.' Stasiek pressed closer to him and began to chatter again: 'Isn't it true, daddy, that the water can see?' 'What should it see?' 'Everything--everything--the sky, the hills; it sees us when we follow the harrows.' 'Go to sleep. Don't talk nonsense.' 'It does, it does, daddy, I've watched it myself,' he whispered, going to sleep. The room was too hot for Slimak; he dragged himself up and staggered to the barn, where he fell into a bundle of straw. 'But what I gave for the cow I gave for her,' he muttered in the direction of the sleeping Grochowski. CHAPTER IV Slimakowa came to the barn early the next morning and called her husband. 'Are you going to be long idling there?' 'What's the matter?' 'It's time to go to the manor-house.' 'Have they sent for me?' 'Why should they send for you? You have got to go to them and see about the field.' Slimak groaned, but came out on to the threshing-floor. His face was bloated, he looked ashamed of himself, and his hair was full of straw. 'Just look at him,' jeered his wife: 'his sukmana is dirty and wet, he hasn't taken off his boots all night, and he scowls like a brigand. You are more fit for a scarecrow in a flaxfield than for talking to the squire. Change your clothes and go.' She returned to the cowshed, and a weight fell off Slimak's mind that the matter had ended there. He had expected to be jeered at till the afternoon. He came out into the yard and looked round. The sun was high, the ground had dried after the rain; the wind from the ravines brought the song of birds and a damp, cheerful smell; the fields had become green during the night. The sky looked as if it had been freshened up, and the cottage seemed whiter. 'A nice day,' he murmured, gaining courage, and went indoors to dress. He pulled the straw out of his hair and put on a clean shirt and new boots. He thought they did not look polished enough, so he took a piece of tallow and rubbed it well first over his hair, then over his boots. Then he stood in front of the glass and smiled contentedly at the brilliance he rejected from head to foot. His wife came in at that moment and looked disdainfully at him. 'What have you been doing to your head? You stink of tallow miles off. You'd better comb your hair.'