Presently the village was lost in shadows and plunged in the deep stillness of an autumnal night. The huts seemed smaller, as though sunk into the ground or melted into the trees that hung dreamily above them, or made one with the grey fences surrounding them. Antek and Kuba were carrying the potatoes. Hanka and Yuzka, busy with their household duties, were driving the geese home or feeding the swine that came grunting for food into the passage. Then the cows wanted milking. Vitek had just come home with them from the pasture-lands, and had put a little hay on the racks before them, that they might remain quiet while being milked. Yuzka had just begun with the first cow, when Vitek asked her in a low trembling voice: “Yuzka, is master very angry?” “Oh, Lord! that he is! He means to give you a thrashing!” she answered, turning her face to the light and putting out her hand, for the cow, tormented by flies, was whisking her tail, which struck the girl. “But was it my fault if the forester drove us out? He would have given me a beating, too, but I got away. And she lay down and lowed and moaned, so I came back with her.” He said no more, but she heard him sniffling and weeping quietly. “Vitek! you are crying like a calf. Don’t! Is it the first time father has thrashed you?” “No, indeed, but I can’t bear being thrashed; I am always afraid.” “How silly! A great husky fellow, and afraid? But I’ll explain it all to Father.” “Will you really, Yuzka?” he exclaimed joyfully. “I will, Vitek; only fear no more!” “If you will,—then here’s a bird for you,” he whispered, much pleased, and took a marvellous toy out of his bosom. “Just look how it moves, all by itself!” He placed it on the threshold and wound it up. The bird, lifting up its long legs and shaking its head, began to walk. “Oh Lord! it’s a stork! and it moves as if alive!” she cried out in wonder and, setting her milk pail aside, crouched down and gazed on in rapture. “Oh, how clever you are to have made it! and it moves by itself, does it?” “By itself, Yuzka; only I wind it up with this wooden peg. And see! it is strutting about like a gentleman after dinner!” He turned it about. The bird, lifting up its long legs, with comical gravity, strutted on, moving its neck back and forth. They both started to laugh, heartily amused by these movements; and from time to time Yuzka glanced admiringly at the boy. Suddenly Boryna raised his voice, calling to Yuzka from outside the cabin. “Here I am,” she answered. “Come to me.” “I can’t; I’m milking.” “Well,” he said, “I am off to the Voyt,” and added, peeping into the dark shed: “That, that there bastard, isn’t he here?” “Oh, Vitek do you mean? He is gone with Antek,” she replied hastily and with uneasiness, for Vitek, terrified, had come to crouch behind her.