He imagined Jendrek in button-boots and a jockey cap, and he spat.
'Bah! so long as I am about, you won't dress like that, young dog! All the same I shall have to warm his latter end for him, or else he won't take his cap off to the squire next, and then I can go begging. It's the wife's fault, she is always spoiling him. There's nothing for it, I must give him a hiding.'
Again dust was rising on the road, this time in the direction of the plain. Slimak saw two forms, one tall, the other oblong; the oblong was walking behind the tall one and nodding its head.
'Who's sending a cow to market?' he thought, '… well, the boy must be thrashed…if only I could have another cow and that bit of field.'
He drove the horses down the hill towards the Bialka, where he caught sight of Stasiek, but could see nothing more of his farm or of the road. He was beginning to feel very tired; his feet seemed a heavy weight, but the weight of uncertainty was still greater, and he never got enough sleep. When his work was finished, he often had to drive off to the town.
'If I had another cow and that field,' he thought, 'I could sleep more.'
He had been meditating on this while harrowing over a fresh bit for half an hour, when he heard his wife calling from the hill:
'Josef, Josef!'
'What's up?'
'Do you know what has happened?' 'How should I know?'