'We must get some one to come and wash him,' she said, laying the breakfast, when he had come in.
'I will fetch the deaf-mute.'
'Don't go to work to-day.'
'Go…no, not I…'
They did not speak again, and ate their breakfast without appetite, although as a rule they finished their four quarts of soup between them.
When they went out into the yard they walked quickly, and did not turn their heads towards the other side. They were worried, but did not know why; they felt no remorse; it was perhaps more a vague fear of the corpse, or fear of death, that shook them and made them silent.
When it was broad day, Antek fetched the village deaf-mute, who washed and dressed the old man, laid him out, and put a consecrated candle at his head.
Antek then went to give notice to the priest and to the Soltys of his father-in-law's death and his own inability to pay for the funeral.
'Let Tomek bury him; he has got all the money.'
The news of the old man's death spread rapidly throughout the village.
People soon began to assemble in little groups to look at the corpse.
They murmured a prayer, shook their heads, and went off to talk it
over.