XIV.
[IMPROVEMENT AND DECEPTION]
It was about noon--for they had not hastened on the way and had stopped a long time at the inn--when our travellers, having persuaded the gray to beat a retreat, disappeared from the village and stopped with Siepak before the entrance of the old inn.
In front of the door sat Radionek, rapidly turning an enormous porringer, and Huluk, as he helped him, was talking with him in gay tones.
As soon as he saw his father, Radionek, both surprised and alarmed, sprang forward to assist him to descend.
"So here you are, father. Did anything happen on the way, that you have come back so soon?"
"Nothing, nothing at all, my child; only I met this honest fellow, who has worked a long time with the potters in Mrozowica, and he has offered to teach me to glaze pottery."
Radionek, overcome with joy, jumped up and cried, "Is it really true? Can it be possible?"
"Why, yes, I know how to glaze as truly as I stand here," cried the merry Siepak; "and I shall be very glad indeed to play a good trick upon my neighbours in Mrozowica, for I never shall forget the rascality of those lazy fellows.
"'I'm not your brother; you're not my father.'"