e, my son, where are you
creeping off?"

"_Dalej_, _dalej!_" He was longing to get there. A bright streak in the
sky already cast a faint glimmer of light around. The man looked about
as he groped along. Aha, there was the stable! Aha!

Then Mr. Tiralla was happy.

[Pg 307]

CHAPTER XIV

Marianna was humming a song, although she had been up all night and the
words almost froze on her lips in the calm, cold, wintry air.

"Black eyes in her head,
Just like me, just like me.

Golden hackles on her shoes,
Just like me, just like me.

In her pocket not a coin,
Just like----"

"Ah!"

She yawned and then tried to dance a few steps. How tired she was. But
it had been very nice with Jendrek, he was the best of them all in
spite of everything.

She rattled her milk pails merrily as she glided nimbly across the
slippery yard to the stables in her low, creaking shoes.

The light was still faint and the air was cold, bitterly cold. A hard
frost had come at daybreak, the first that year, and had touched
everything with its blighting finger. The pools in the unpaved yard,
from which as a rule the rain, dirty water, and melted snow flowed in
rivulets to the big pond in the centre, were now united and formed a
single white mirror.

The house was still dark and quiet. Marianna's eyes twinkled; aha, they
were all still asleep. Good! [Pg 308] then none of them had heard that
she had only come home at six that morning. She had not been up to her
room yet to take her best dress off, but it would not harm it, even if
she were to wear it whilst milking for once. Hark! how the cows were
lowing. They were waiting impatiently. But how they would stare when
they saw her in her beautiful, new, red dress, with its many pleats,
which she had got on purpose to do the thing in grand style with
Jendrek, and her spick-and-span new shoes, in which she had danced last
night for the first time.

The vain girl tittered as she skipped into the stables where the cattle
were lowing dully. "Quiet, quiet there," she said, groping about for
the lantern in order to light it, as it was still rather dark. "Yes,
yes, here she is, here's Marianna. _Psia krew_, hold your tongues." At
that moment the lantern cast a light around. "Good God!" Breaking off
in the midst of her chatter, the servant let the m