Karolina Světlá

“ It serves you right that you should have had a taste at once of what obstinacy and bad temper lead to. In the future you will be careful not to go too far. But your anger doesn’t impress me at all. It is like thunder in the spring, short and furious; everything is the more beautiful and luscious for it afterwards. You will make no one believe that you can live without Lukas or he without you. You make me laugh. You two will attract each other for ever; as long as you live on this earth you won’t get rid of each other. ”

“ Instead of answering, the girl burst into tears.
‘What has happened?’ Lukas urged in great agitation, ‘why are you standing here at this time of night? Why are you not in bed? What are you crying for?’
‘How can I help crying?’ sobbed the girl, ‘when our mistress has left us for ever? We shall never get one like her. You might go to the ends of the world to look for a better. We all of us loved her for her kind heart and her order and cleanliness. She thought of every one rather than herself, and was always ready to do you a good turn; she never was proud. ”

“ If I stay where I am, no one will tell me of his new courtship and his marriage; no one will praise his bride to me—her beauty, his fondness for her. Fond? Could he really be fond of her? I can hardly believe it. I blame him severely, but to love another in his place—no, even spite could not make me do it! But men have quite different ideas of love from ours; unfortunately I have had to learn that. He was not like this before his marriage, though! His wife has spoilt his character.’
Vendulka was interrupted in her tearful soliloquy. ”

“ It was foolish of Vendulka to turn pale at these words. She might well have known that he was only a man in a temper, and it would have been better if she had simply said: ‘Don’t talk nonsense!’ Possibly all would have been well. A woman who cannot lead a man with gentleness when he is storming and shouting with anger, will never manage him at all.
But these heartless words had barely escaped Lukas, when Vendulka behaved as if she had lost her senses. ”

“ When Vendulka had seen the bridegroom entering the house, she had hidden herself, as a good old custom demanded of a well-brought-up girl, and had waited in her bedroom till the groomsman should call for her, to tell her the result of the preliminaries, and to lead her to the bridegroom, who would then repeat his suit to her.
Vendulka came into the room with the groomsman. When Lukas saw her who shortly would be his bride he grew quite pale with excitement. ‘Lukas,’ she said, and held out her hand to him, while the tears poured from her eyes. ”

“ To whomsoever this may not be a repetition of a well-known feature, it should be known that gossip in and out of season is as indispensable to us mountain-dwellers, as water to a fish. If anyone ever were to stop our talking and chattering, he would condemn us to death. We who live around the Jeschken Mountain would rather do without daily bread and content ourselves with dry potatoes, than renounce our sweetest habit. We will never give up gossiping; it eases life’s burdens, steels our courage, keeps us healthy—in short, gossip is as important as going to confession. ”

“ I would rather be with you than anywhere else. The neighbours know that you are either asleep or on the roads, so they don’t come to see you. Nobody will know that I am with you, and if you ask the smugglers not to tell, none of them will gossip. Lukas will think I have gone into service, and leave me in peace. I need not fear to be bothered either by him or by father; neither of them will trouble about me, they will be glad to be rid of me.’
She could not go on, her face betrayed her despair.
‘What frights you give people, you young devil!’ Martinka scolded her niece. ”

“ It was said of Lukas that he had no other fault than his bad temper; apart from that he was the kindest, mildest, and. most benevolent of men, who would not hurt a creature. He now showed that people had judged him fairly. He not only took the reproaches of his own servant quite meekly, but he felt his heart warm during her tearful homily, as though he were waking from a heavy dream that had held him in its toils. The simple statement of Vendulka’s goodness by this disinterested observer did more than any arguments on the right or the wrong of his case could have done. ”

“ When Lukas comes to his senses he will be annoyed with himself for the trick he had played on you; and if you will sit here and think about it till to-morrow morning, all sorts of things will occur to you which you ought or ought not to have said. Your wrath will go up in smoke when your blood has cooled. You will be reasonable, and the old love will come back all the more strongly.’
‘Never—never!’ Vendulka cried with all her might. She had hardly been able to contain herself to the end of her aunt’s admonition. ”

“ But Martinka only shook her head, annoyed with Vendulka for having startled her so unnecessarily.
‘What Lukas has done, any other man in his place would have done,’ she said disapprovingly to the sobbing Vendulka. ‘What bridegroom would like his bride to set a person who is dead and gone above him, even if it should be his own wife? I can’t understand why this didn’t occur to you before you ran away. He is not the first man to be made mad by such behaviour as yours. Have you forgotten our Mráček, who went to keep house for her lover in a similar case? ”

“ It had been on the last evening which they had spent under the aspen tree together; when they had both thought that they were taking leave of each other for ever. He too took counsel with himself, whether it would not be better to give in, and not demand the kiss until after their wedding. A man should have more sense than a woman. Why embitter each other’s lives? They were really fond of each other, had thought to die because they had not been allowed to marry, and now, shortly before their wedding, here they were, tormenting each other for no reason whatever. ”

“ Vendulka won’t give in once she takes a thing into her head; she would sooner see the world in ashes. She has an iron will in everything, not only in love. And you, my dear boy, so far as I know, you are not an angel of patience either when you have set your heart on a thing. I fear that when your two hard heads knock against each other, you will see stars and not know where in the world you are ”

“ The old woman quickened her pace so that it was all Vendulka could do to keep pace with her. They reached a steep piece of rock, thickly wooded; Vendulka thought they would skirt it, but Martinka began to climb, holding herself upright; her niece scrambled after her. A sudden turn brought them to an opening in the rock, from which the shadowy form of a man appeared. It was old Matouš, who had been lying down in the grass, waiting for the arrival of his laggard carrier; he was now raising himself. ”

“ Every one will wish him happiness and content. There are not many like him. He hurts nobody and will allow no one to be wronged. Where he can do you a good turn he does it with all his heart. He has a temper, that’s true, but who is perfect?’
‘Who could have prophesied to Vendulka Paloucky that she would marry Lukas after all? Since the day when his banns were up, she hasn’t gone to a single dance or feast, and yet Vendulka is a spirited girl, and nimble as a doe. ”

“ And here was the Moper, saying incomprehensible things! But the villagers soon regained their usual balance of mind. They looked at each other as much as to say: ‘We know him; it is an old story that he spoils every game.’ Lukas, however, was not satisfied, and repeatedly pressed the old man, saying: ‘If you do not advise the marriage, you must have a reason. Do you think Vendulka cares less about me now?’
‘Don’t talk nonsense. You know very well that she has had eyes and heart only for you. If your wife hadn’t died she would have remained single to her dying day. ”

“ My dear girl, men are men; they want to be the masters at any price. You won’t change them, nor I. When a bride goes to keep house for her lover before the wedding, she lets herself in for much trouble, but in return her husband will love and honour her to the end of their days. You can’t have something for nothing, honour is dearly bought. The only thing about it that annoys me is that your father should have proved to be in the right. Fancy you letting it come to that! Why couldn’t you let Lukas rave and fume? ”

“ I suppose Lukas’s baby is ill, and you want me to get you medicine from Zittau through the smugglers. Be quick and out with it! I’m in a hurry, I ought to have been on my way by now. I don’t know what Matousš will think; he will say I am no better than the other women.’
‘There is no medicine in the whole world for the illness that has driven me from Lukas’s house,’ said Vendulka, and hot tears were gushing from her eyes. ”

“ Vendulka became pensive. How was it possible that Lukas should misunderstand her intentions which must be as clear as day-light to every one? Only a person evilly disposed towards her could put her in the wrong about it. ”

“ The brother-in-law could not suppress a smile at the Moper’s unusual smartness; as a rule he took a long time before he said what he was going to say, and pondered long and thoroughly, so as not to endanger his salvation. It is to be regretted that people of this kind are dying out: formerly all our mountain dwellers were equally cautious and conscientious.
Lukas too was smiling contentedly to himself, pleased to hear Vendulka’s name coupled with his own. ”

“ Lukas and his brother-in-law were speechless with astonishment when they heard these words, and silence had also struck the neighbours and gossips who, one after the other, had crept into the room to be witnesses of the betrothal. They would have expected anything rather than such a development. ”

“ And before Vendulka knew what he was doing, he had jumped up, caught her in his arms and pressed his mouth upon her red lips so hard that he nearly drew blood.
In angry surprise Vendulka tore herself from him and pushed him away with all her strength. Lukas was not prepared for this; caught unawares, he reeled back into the room.—Every one knows how powerful our mountain-girls are. They easily lift their partners into the air at the ‘longest night’ dance during the contest after supper. ”

“ In short, as soon as the bridegroom has got his father-in-law’s consent, the bride considers herself as belonging more to his family than her own, and feels it her duty to help him under all circumstances, as befits a true and faithful companion. The bridegroom, on his part, is also ready to help her family as though he were a son.
Everybody had predicted that Vendulka would go to Lukas’s house immediately after the betrothal, to put his bereaved and neglected household in order. His first wife had been known to be a bad housekeeper ”

“ No girl would go haymaking, no child pick strawberries, no man set out on a journey, no old woman gather dry sticks alone. Otherwise we should get bored, and all the work would be spoilt. But when there is some one with whom we can chatter about possible and impossible things, dear me, how the task does fly! How quickly we get on with it, so that the dwellers of the plains cannot take their eyes off us.
The gossips are on pins and needles, and can hardly wait for the bellringer. What an age the man is taking to-day before coming down, and limping out of the church door! ”

“ When a man dies and leaves his wife an empty cottage and five hungry children, a woman cannot be too particular. She must take what comes along and be glad of profits, however small. How should she have refused from mere niceness what was very profitable, and certainly not bad or dishonest?
Old Martinka saw nothing wrong in her trade, and all the people in our mountains share her view. Nowadays the trade has lost much of its profit and is a poor one, but thirty or more years ago it was a very different matter ”

“ Martinka herself had only gradually acquired her skill, and it had taken a long time before she got accustomed to turn day into night, and to creep along lonely passes and byways in the dark, endure the hardships of winter, and be for ever on the look-out. ”

“ I have been blaming her for her obstinacy, but when she refused one suitor after another, although she had not the least hope of our ever being married, I was glad enough of her obstinacy. It pleased me mightily, and I called it steadfastness, and praised her for it more than for anything else. What other girl would have forgiven me for marrying another? Indeed, when she saw how unrelenting my parents were, she herself urged me to give way, and would not let them curse me on her account. Any other girl would have blamed me for giving ear to them more than to her. ”

“ To pass the time agreeably to himself and others during the preliminaries, he took much snuff and frequently made the snuffbox circulate. When Vendulka and Lukas at last had come to an agreement, and sealed it with the customary handshake, he sent for beer from the inn and for new bread and goat’s cheese from the larder, so that it should not be said his guests had had to leave his house with a dry mouth after Vendulka’s betrothal. They did not wait to be pressed to eat, but fell to, and drank each other’s health in many glasses.
Lukas was the only one who cared neither for food nor drink. ”

“ He is still as smart at the trade as his youngest son, no one can beat him at it. He is the leader of the party, and has ten or twenty followers. They walk one after the other at a distance of a hundred steps; they glide like shadows. Formerly there would be as many as fifty, but like everything else, the trade is going down. He climbs the rocks like a chamois and has the hearing of a partridge; he smells the police half a mile off. As soon as he notices the slightest thing wrong by the way, he makes a sign to the others and leads them on byways and paths where spies daren’t go. ”