'One of your lot is always after me to sell him my land,' said Slimak.
'To think of such a thing!' interposed his wife. 'Who is he?'
'How should I know? there are two of them, and they came twice, an old man and one with a beard. They want my hill to put up a windmill, they say.'
'That's Hamer,' said the girl under her breath to her father.
'Oh, Hamer,' repeated the invalid, 'he has caused us difficulties enough. Our people wanted to go to the other side of the Bug, where land only costs thirty roubles an acre, but he persuaded them to come here, because they are building a railway across the valley. So our people have been buying land here at seventy roubles an acre and have been running into debt with the Jew, and we shall see what comes of it.'
The girl meanwhile had been eating coarse bread, sharing it with the dog. She now looked across to where the colonists were spreading themselves over the fields.
'We must go, father,' she said.
'Yes, we must go; what do I owe you for the milk, gospodarz?'
The peasant shrugged his shoulders.
'If we were obliged to take money for a little thing like that, I shouldn't have asked you.'