“Ah, but that Yagna! she that has had dalliance, and with more than one! To be the wife of the first farmer here! Is there any justice in the world, say? And meanwhile, so many a girl is remaining unwedded—my younger sister, for example!” “Or my brother’s widow.... Or the Kopzyva girls.... Or Nastka, and many another.—No, it is not seemly, ’tis not meet, not right; what think you?” “She will be mightily puffed up, and strut about like a peacock, will she not?” “Great offence of God there must be: be sure that neither the smith nor Boryna’s children will suffer her as a stepmother.” “Alas, what can they do? The land is as much his own as his will is.” “By law, yes; but in justice, it belongs to them as well.” “My dear friend, justice is always for him who has the power to get it on his side.” They continued thus, complaining and inveighing against the world and all its deeds, and went their way. And with them the news spread throughout the hamlet. The little work there was to do was not urgent; so the people were all at home, the roads being as quaggy as so many sloughs; and the possible marriage was discussed in every cabin. All were eagerly expectant of what would take place. They well knew how headstrong Boryna was, and that he would not be turned away from a course he had chosen for himself, even were his Reverence to dissuade him. They knew, too, the unyielding pride of Antek’s nature. Even those men who had been drafted to mend the mill-side road where the dam had burst, stopped in their work to talk of so momentous an occurrence. Various opinions were set forth; and at last, old Klemba, an intelligent and respected farmer, gave the stern judgment: “The whole village will be the worse for this!” “Antek will not suffer it,” someone said. “What, another mouth to feed?” “That would make no difference. But the inheritance! There’s the rub.” “There will surely have to be a marriage settlement.” “Yes; Dominikova is shrewd, and will manage that.” “She is a mother,” Klemba put in, “and even a bitch will defend her own puppies.” Thus, all the afternoon, the people in the village were talking the matter over. Which was no wonder, the Boryna family being of the very best stock of husbandmen, and Matthias holding land which had from time immemorial belonged to his people, being also endowed with hereditary keenness of wit, as well as riches; so that everybody, willingly or not, had to take him into account. To none of his children, however, not even to the smith, durst anyone tell the news: the rage it would cause might be so great as to result in a sound thrashing for the teller. All then was quiet at Boryna’s hut; more so, indeed, than usual. The rain had ceased since morning, and the sky was clear. Antek, along with Kuba and the womenfolk, had been sent to the forest at once after breakfast, in order to get some dry fuel, and see whether they could not rake together some supply of pine-needles.