style="font-size:15px;"> Both retinues now approached, and Macko arrived also; they continued to repeat: "Tatulo! Jagula!" and still kissed each other. Finally Jagienka asked:
"Then you decided to return from the war? Are you well?"
"From the war. Why should I not be well? And you? And the boys? Are they well also? Yes, otherwise you would not run in the forest. But, my girl, what are you doing here?"
"Don't you see that I am hunting?" answered Jagienka, laughing.
"In somebody else's woods?"
"The abbot gave me permission. He even sent me experienced huntsmen and a pack of hounds."
Here she turned to the servants:
"Chase the dogs away, they will tear the skin!"
Then to Zych:
"Oj, how glad I am to see you!" And they again kissed each other. When they were through, Jagna said:
"We are far from home; we followed the beast. I am sure it must be more than ten miles; the horses are exhausted. What a large urus! Did you notice? He must have at least three of my arrows in him; the last one killed him."
"He was killed by the last, but it was not yours; this knight killed him."
Jagienka threw her hair back and looked at Zbyszko sharply, but not very friendly.
"Do you know who he is?" asked Zych.
"I do not know."
"No wonder you do not recognize him, because he has grown. Perhaps you will recognize old Macko of Bogdaniec?"
"For God's sake! is that Macko of Bogdaniec?" exclaimed Jagienka.
Having approached the wagon, she kissed Macko's hand.
"It is you?"
"Yes, it is I; but I am obliged to ride in the wagon, because the Germans wounded me."
"What Germans? The war was with the Tartars?"
"There was a war with the Tartars, but we were not in that war; we fought in the war in Lithuania, Zbyszko and I."
"Where is Zbyszko?"
"Then you did not recognize Zbyszko?" said Macko smiling.
"Is that man Zbyszko?" exclaimed the girl, looking again at the young knight.
"Yes, it is he."
"You must give him a kiss, because he is an old acquaintance of yours," said Zych, mirthfully.
Jagienka turned gaily toward Zbyszko; but suddenly she retreated, and having covered her eyes with her hand, she said:
"I am bashful."
"But we have known each other since we were children," said Zbyszko.
"Aha! we know each other well. I remember when you made us a visit with Macko about eight years ago, and my matula[72] gave us some nuts with honey; you being the elder, struck me with your fist and then ate all the nuts yourself."
"He will not act like that now!" said Macko. "He has been with Kniaz Witold, and with the court in Krakow, and he has learned courtly manners."
But Jagienka was now thinking about something else; turning toward Zbyszko, she asked:
"Then you killed the urus?"
"Yes."
"We must see where the arrow is."
"You cannot see it; it disappeared under the shoulder bone."
"Be quiet; do not dispute," said Zych. "We all saw him shoot the urus, and we saw something still better; he bent the bow without a crank."
Jagienka looked at Zbyszko for the third time, but now with astonishment.
"You bent the crossbow without a crank?"
Zbyszko, detecting some doubt in her voice, rested the crossbow on the ground, and bent it in the twinkling of an eye; then wishing to show that he was familiar with knightly manners, he kneeled on one knee and handed the bow to Jagienka. But the girl, instead of taking it from him, suddenly blushed – she did not know why herself, and began to fasten the shirt, which, during the swift riding, had become opened on her bosom.
CHAPTER IV
The next day after their arrival at Bogdaniec, Macko and Zbyszko began to look around their old home; they soon realized that Zych of Zgorzelice was right when he told them that at first they would be uncomfortable.
With the farming they could get along quite well. There were several fields cultivated by the peasants whom the abbot had settled there. Formerly there had been much cultivated land in Bogdaniec; but after the battle at Plowce[73] where the family Grady perished, there was a scarcity of working hands; and after the invasion of the Germans from Szlonsk and after the war of Nalenczs with Grzymalits, the formerly rich fields became overgrown with trees. Macko could not help it. In vain he tried for several years to bring farmers from Krzesnia and rent the land to them; they refused to come, preferring to remain on their own strips of land rather than to cultivate some one else's. His offer however attracted some shelterless men; in the different wars, he captured several slaves whom he married and settled in the houses; and in that way he populated the village. But it was hard work for him; therefore as soon as he had an opportunity, Macko pledged the whole of Bogdaniec, thinking that it would be easier for the powerful abbot to settle the land with peasants, and that the war would bring to him and to Zbyszko some people and money. In fact, the abbot was energetic. He had increased the working force of Bogdaniec with five peasant families; he increased the stock of cattle and horses; then he built a barn, a stable and a cow house. But as he did not live in Bogdaniec, he did not repair the house. Macko, who had hoped to find the grodek surrounded with a ditch and hedge when he returned, found everything just as he had left it, with this difference only, that the walls were more crooked and seemed to be lower, because they had settled deeper in the earth.
The house contained an enormous hall, two large rooms with alcoves, and a kitchen. In the rooms there were windows made of bladders; and in the centre of each room, there was a fireplace made of lime, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the ceiling. From the ceilings now blackened from smoke, during former times used to hang the hams of boars, bears and deer, rumps of roes, sides of beef and rolls of sausages. But now the hooks were empty as well as the shelves fastened to the walls, on which they used to put the tin and earthen dishes. The walls beneath the shelves were no longer empty, however, because Zbyszko had ordered his servants to hang helmets, cuirasses, long swords and short swords on them; and further along boar-spears and forks, caparisons and saddles. The smoke blackened the weapons, and it was necessary to clean them very often. But Macko, who was careful, ordered the servants to put the costly clothes in the alcove in which his bed stood.
In the front rooms there stood near the windows, pine tables and benches of the same, on which the lords used to sit during the meals, with all their servants. People accustomed to war were easily satisfied; but in Bogdaniec there was neither bread nor flour and no dishes. The peasants brought what they could; Macko expected that the neighbors, as was then customary, would help him; and he was not mistaken, at least as far as Zych of Zgorzelice was concerned.
The second day,
