THE PEASANTS AUTUMN THE PEASANTS A TALE OF OUR OWN TIMES IN FOUR VOLUMES AUTUMN WINTER SPRING[1] SUMMER[2] ----- Footnote 1: _To be published April, 1925_ Footnote 2: _To be published July, 1925_ THE PEASANTS AUTUMN FROM THE POLISH OF LADISLAS REYMONT [Illustration: Publisher’s Logo] ALFRED · A · KNOPF NEW YORK MCMXXV PUBLISHED, JANUARY, 1925, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. SECOND PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924. THIRD PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924. FOURTH PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924. FIFTH PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1924. SIXTH PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1925. SEVENTH PRINTING, MAY, 1925. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHER’S NOTE _The Peasants_ has been translated from the original Polish by Michael H. Dziewicki, Reader of English Literature at the University of Cracow. I wish to make special acknowledgment to Dr. A. M. Nawench of Columbia University for his invaluable assistance in seeing the work through the press. A. A. K. THE PEASANTS AUTUMN CHAPTER I “Praised be Jesus Christ!” “World without end!—What, my good Agatha? And whither be you wandering now?” “Out into the world, please your Reverence, into the wide world!” she answered, with a wave of her staff from east to west. The priest mechanically turned his eyes in that direction, but closed them to the blinding sun in the western sky. Then he said, in a lower and somewhat hesitating tone: “Have the Klembas turned you out? Or is it only a little bickering between you?” She drew herself up a little and, before answering, cast her eyes around her upon the bare autumnal fields and the village roofs surrounded by fruit-gardens.