urious with him that they seemed entirely to
forget that they lived in a country where hares are no man's property,
so to speak, and are often killed by passers-by as they gambol about
fearlessly in the immense, lonely fields that extend for miles.

The younger men's eyes sparkled as they listened. The tax-collector,
the clerk from the post office, and the schoolmaster were none of them
thirty. The forester, who was sitting next to the clerk from the post
office, and Jokisch, the inspector of the settlement near the lake,
could also be reckoned amongst her admirers, although they were married
men; and the gendarme was still a good-looking fellow, in spite of his
greyish moustache and an almost grown-up daughter.

"I knew all about those hares," said Bilkowski, the forester, laughing.

"You knew it?" The gendarme opened his eyes wide.

"Oh, I say, don't look like that. If I were to publish everything that
happens here," and the forester shrugged his shoulders, "I should never
get any further."

"But a man ought to--it's his duty--I'm obliged," and the gendarme, who
had only been transferred to this post the spring before, pulled out an
enormous note-book from his pocket with a determined look, and took out
the pencil. "I always write everything down. Things were bad enough in
Upper Silesia, but they seem to be worse here."

[Pg 58]

"Oh, you'll get used to them," said the forester reassuringly. "It's
really very nice here. I shouldn't like to live anywhere else now. It
was also rather difficult for me at first, and especially for my wife.
She made enough fuss about it. But now I never hear anything more,
and"--he paused for a moment, then added with a smile that was half
embarrassed, half sly--"I only see what I want to see. What else is
there for me to do? Am I to act in opposition to the nobility, who
would continue to do exactly what they liked all the same, or am I to
let the peasants kill me when they commit outrages in the royal woods?
Of course I always go to the Przykop when I hear a shot; but if they
don't shoot, if they only make use of their cudgels, what then?"

He was right. They all agreed that it was no easy matter to be a
forester. Still the gendarme did not exactly approve of Mr. Bilkowski
speaking so frankly. "But, my dear fellow," and Bilkowski patted him on
the shoulder, "we're all in the same boat. Why shouldn't I speak
frankly amongst friends?"

The priest cast a glance at the open door le