“The Germans, what are they?” cried another. “Some settled in Lishka, and our peasants bought them out to the last acre.—True, in Gorka it was the other way round, but by our own fault: we drank, we went to law continually, and we all went a-begging in the end.” “Why, then, we too may buy Podlesie later!” said Yendrek Boryna, Antek’s cousin. “’Tis easy to talk. At present, we cannot manage to pay so much as sixty roubles an acre: how shall we ever pay a hundred and fifty?” “If our fathers would but give each man his proper portion, we should mend matters more easily.” “That’s sure. I should know what to do directly.” Here Gregory interfered. “O ye fools, ye fools! With all their land entire, our elders can scarce make both ends meet; and ye think to lay by from a part thereof?” They were struck dumb—stunned by the evidence of the truth he uttered. “No,” he went on to say; “the evil is not that our fathers will not give up their holdings, but that Lipka has too little land and too many people. A plot that gave food for three in our grandfathers’ time must now be shared by ten.” “How true you speak!—Aye, it is the truth,” they all agreed, much abashed. “Then,” someone proposed, “let’s buy Podlesie, and share it amongst ourselves.” “Ye may buy a whole village; but whence shall the money come?” Matthew grunted. “Wait a little: peradventure we may find a means.” “Wait; do as ye please; I have enough of waiting, and am disgusted.—I’ll leave the country and go to the town!” “Please yourself. But we—the others—must stay and take some step or other.” “The devil take it all! We are so close that I wonder the walls do not fall apart, so many we are in each hut, with misery clamorous therein: while hard by, there are broad lands, asking but to be taken up. No, were we starving, there’s not the wherewithal to purchase it; nor can we borrow aught from anyone. To the devil with it!” Then Gregory told them how things went on in other countries, and they listened mournfully, until Matthew interrupted him: “Others are well off: what is that to us? Show a hungry man a dish and put it by: shall he fill his belly with the sight thereof? Elsewhere folk are protected; not so here, where every man grows like a wild tree upon waste land, and whether he succeeds or fails—provided only that he pay the taxes, serve in the army, and obey the officials—who cares?” Gregory heard him out in silence, and started afresh. “There is but one way to get Podlesie into our hands.”