Božena Viková-Kunětická

“ It entered her mind that it might be a good plan to cook lentils today for dinner. She wanted a new fragrance in her kitchen—an odor to which it heretofore was unaccustomed, as she had not yet cooked lentils during her married life.
She continued to look at herself in the glass stupidly and without interest. She had a beautifully molded figure, but her inspection of self did not impress her pleasurably or otherwise, because her goal was attained—her purpose achieved. She possessed charming lips and large, clear eyes which she opened wide, as if in constant wonder. ”

“ Nicholas would bring them. There were young, girlish looking mothers, flushed with excitement; mothers so poor that they could afford to bring nothing but a few apples and nuts; rich mothers, who brought beautiful gilded sugar toys, and candies. But whether rich or poor, all were equally happy, and all with equal reverence sought out Svejnoha, in whose hands, sanctified by their holy office, they placed their children’s gifts. ”

“ And now it flutters downward through the branches of the tree which is crowned with such an abundance of green foliage that it seems as if a cloud had settled on it or a mournful pall of the future which gave no promise of spring blossoms, songs of birds or whispers of lovers. The sad little leaf had indeed fallen in the midst of all the greenness spread underneath the blue heavens and lay upon the grass where the first dying blade shivered and sighed among its mates! ”

“ Nanka was not an unusual character—not at all. Such girls and women can be found in every village. With pretty faces and good figures they think of nothing but cows and chickens, butter and eggs; they talk of nothing but their housekeeping, cook gallon pots of soup—in short, live entirely in the physical.
The one event in Nanka’s life had been Hukac’s visit to her father, whom she honored and loved, and whose actions and thoughts she regarded as infallible. ”

“ The stork had not knocked at Hukac’s window, and the crows carried their precious burdens elsewhere.
Then the time came for the hind wheels to move. In small housekeeping, where reckoning is made only by hundreds, the front wheels do not go alone, and to start the hind ones proved no easy matter. Nanka grew pale, but never a word did she say to her father. One day Svejnoha himself began: “See here, my girl,” he said, as if he were talking to his porcelain pipe, “are you all well at home? Tell me something about yourself.” ”

“ The golden band shines on her finger now, and with it all the past is banished, the present solved and the future ordained.
“Well, then, lentils it shall be today.” Lentils are certainly not rare, but they will cause a change in the entire atmosphere of her clean, shiny household. As soon as he reaches the steps her husband will be met with the fragrance from the kitchen and will know that she is cooking lentils for his dinner. ”

“ Still, there is a favor I have to ask of you, father, though I shouldn’t trouble you if there was anybody else in the village I could turn to.”
Svejnoha was silent. Then Hukac began fumbling in his pocket, and finally drew out a casket which he opened and pushed toward Svejnoha. There were ear-rings with tassels, a brooch like a twisted serpent, and a cross on a fine woven chain.
“What’s this?” stammered Svejnoha, his eyes flashing.
“Well, we’re pretty hard up, father; our house is about to be sold over our heads. Where can we get the money? ”

“ The young wife with the instinct born in every woman divined that the touch of her hands no longer aroused a thrill in her husband’s senses and that he kissed her without any tremors of pleasure, but rather in a hasty, careless, perfunctory manner. ”

“ Nicholas had not made his rounds in Loukov, and only here and there filled a stocking that was hung at the window.
Hukac’s farm was sold, and he and Nanka earned a bare living by doing odd jobs of work about the village. In course of time the crows came to their window, bringing a lusty boy, who did nothing all day but eat, and soon he was as big and fat as any mother could wish. Svejnoha seemed utterly ignorant of this. Since he first realized that he had lost his daughter with her marriage the Hukac family had ceased to exist for him. ”

“ The snow flake, finding so many curious eyes fixed upon it, melted with shame, at the very moment a vast army of its brethren came hastening down from the heavens, enveloping all in their feathery whiteness.
“Snow, snow!” The boys jumped and shouted, opening their mouths appallingly wide and stretching out their hands to receive the flakes. They rolled on the ground in their joy, examining with delight the tiny, frozen stars wherever they lighted. The child with the woolly cap followed his comrades’ example, and jumped and shouted and rolled about with the best of them. ”

“ I love music, and especially do I love to listen to the notes of a flute!” And all the time she was studying the words she would be called upon to utter next, in order that they should be both proper and agreeable. ”

“ The old man must have a snug sum hidden away somewhere, or he never would have indulged in this extravagance.
So the front wheels of the family coach of the young married couple started quietly and smoothly; they ran without a single creak. “They are oiled with love,” the father said, “and pushed forward with several years of the father’s savings, they can’t help running smoothly.”
Svejnoha continued diligently and conscientiously to perform his own duties and those he owed the town. He did not thrust his presence upon the Hukac household. Why should he? Nanka often ran over to cheer him up. ”

“ Marka left her husband but a single living remembrance, and that remembrance wore calico frocks, had two long braids dangling down her back, bright eyes, a pretty dimple in her chin, and was named Nanka. Svejnoha loved Loukov, and the thing in Loukov that he loved best was his only child. ”

“ The big boys were still shouting and playing, but the little one was getting blue with cold; in vain he tried to keep back the tears, and his voice was hoarse. His feet were purple, the poor little toes twisted one over the other. He stood first on one foot and then on the other, and the big tears rolled slowly down his pale cheeks, hiding somewhere within the folds of the flowered kerchief tied across his breast. ”

“ She remembered again that her husband would soon arrive and once more experienced a disquieting uneasiness. What would they talk about today at dinner? Perhaps he does not like lentils and will be vexed when Veronica brings the dish on the table. Perhaps, however, he may like them and then he will be gay. After all, what of it? They must talk of something! Maybe one of the apples will be decayed and she will show him the worm and cry, “Oh! ”

“ He knew Loukov by heart; he saw its needs, its possible improvements, and any rent in its social fabric at once arrested his attention. Such an ugly, never to be healed, rent Marka was about to become; for spinisterhood is displeasing to God, and his wrath will fall with equal might upon all who have neglected the sacred duty of establishing families and raising a proportionate number of sons.
At that time Svejnoha was not quite forty. One day he heard a mighty voice within his heart saying: “Vincenc, go be a husband, a father, a father-in-law, a grandfather. It is time ”

“ It was different with her father, although the young man came dressed in his Sunday best, and pressed his suit with the most fervid eloquence. But as Nanka persisted in her choice, Svejnoha was finally subdued.
“We may blow into the wind till our lungs ache, but it will still sing the old song. Hukac was certainly made for some woman. Was it for my Nanka? If so, God help her.”
All ended well, and Hukac was soon drinking to his bride’s health and considering what debts he could pay with her six hundred. Everything was beautiful, the wedding day, the wedding, Nanka’s outfit ”

“ Another punched him between the shoulder blades with his hard fist, until finally the small caravan succeeded in moving its charge toward his home, a tumble down hut, the poorest in the whole village, that seemed to crouch beneath the trees whose slender branches were spread out over it as if in protection.
Svejnoha stood looking after the children. Beneath his shaggy eyebrows something was glistening When, finally, the good Samaritans had succeeded in getting the boy into the house, and shut the door behind him, Svejnoha turned and started home, deep in thought. ”

“ But the children of Loukov waited in vain for St. Nicholas that night; he never came. Svejnoha sat up till dawn; then he lay down and slept heavily. He knew then that Nanka would not come.
From that time St. ”