'Well, God repay you!'
'God speed you,' said Slimak and his wife.
'Strange folk, those Germans,' he said, when they had slowly moved off. 'He is a clever man, yet he goes about in that little cart like an old beggar.'
'And the girl!' said Slimakowa, 'whoever heard of dragging an old man about, as if you were a horse.'
'They're not bad,' said Slimak, returning to his cottage.
The conversation with the Germans had reassured him that they were not as terrible as he had fancied.
When Maciek went out after breakfast to plough the potato-fields,
Slimak slipped off.
'You've got to put up the fence!' his wife called out after him.
'That won't run away,' he answered, and banged the door, fearful lest his wife should detain him.
He crouched as he ran through the yard, wishing to attract her attention as little as possible, and went stealthily up the hill to where Maciek was perspiring over his ploughing.