Vitek muttered some words and, when she had gone, fell back on his pallet, to doze for a few seconds more. In the barn, upon the straw-strewn threshing-floor, lay the potatoes chosen for planting. She looked in there, and also into the shed close by, where all their farming-implements were stored. Then, having seen, as she did regularly each day, that nothing was missing or had been damaged during the night, she went out into the wheat-fields, where she continued her interrupted morning prayers. Now that the sun had risen, there was as a blast of flame rushing through the orchard. The dews were dropping from the trees, the wind rustled softly in the boughs, the larks trilled forth their carols louder and louder. Folk began to move about, the waters of the mill-pond beat upon the banks, gates opened with a rusty creak, geese screamed, dogs yelped, and now and then a human voice was heard. Folk were rising later than their wont. It was Sunday, and they were glad to rest their tired limbs a little longer. Hanka prayed only with her lips: her thoughts were elsewhere.... She gazed over those broad lands, bounded afar by the thick veil of the forest, which the flames of the eastern sky were flooding, making the young fir-trees stand out like amber amidst the bluish underwood; over those other fields, shimmering tremulously in the quivering yellow glare, and growing their moist greenish fleece of sprouting corn; over the thin watery streaks—threads of silver—that ran here and there in the deep furrows along the damp cornlands, under the cool wafts of the breezes, and in the sacred hush in which all life manifests itself on earth. And yet she noted none of all these things. They rose up before her, those past days of hunger and want and injustice, with the memory of Antek’s faithlessness, and of her manifold sorrows and afflictions—so great that she wondered how she could ever have found strength to bear them, and to await this happier lot now granted her by our Lord. For behold, there she was, once more upon the farm-lands of Boryna! And who would now have the power to oust her thence? During the past six months, she had undergone more than many go through in all their lives: now she could suffer what the Lord should choose her to suffer, until Antek returned to himself, and the land was theirs for ever. She recalled now how and when the young men had started for the forest expedition. She had been forced to stay behind; to join them would, in her state, have been a difficult and dangerous attempt. Antek, she had been told, was not with the others; and this made her uneasy. It was, she thought, no doubt out of spite against the old man his father ... or possibly to spend the time with Yagna! The thought had gnawed at her heart: but as to going and spying after him—never! And then, just before noon, the Gulbas boy had run in, crying: “Victory! the Manor-folk are beaten!” and went past.