And they had answered: 'What's the good of being neighbours? A nobleman is a nobleman and a peasant is a peasant. We should prefer peasants for neighbours and you would prefer noblemen.' Then the squire had cited: 'Remember, the runaway goat came back to the cart and said, "Put me in." But I shall say you nay.' And Gryb, in the name of them all, had answered: 'The goat will come, your honour, when you throw your forests open.'
The squire had said nothing, but his trembling moustaches had warned them that he would not forget that answer.
'I always told Gryb not to talk with a long tongue,' Slimak sighed.
'Now it is I who will have to suffer for his impudence.'
A new idea came into his head. Why should he not pay for the field in work instead of cash? The Squire might accept it, for he wasn't half a bad gentleman. It was true, the other gospodarze looked down upon him, because he was the only one who hired himself out for work; but whatever happened, the squire would always be the squire, and they the gospodarze. He hummed again, but under his breath, so that the boys should not hear him:
'The cuckoo cuckooed in the forest,
Say the neighbours, I am the dullest.'
Suddenly he turned upon Stasiek, and wanted to know why he was dragging along as if he were being taken to jail, and didn't talk.
'I…I am wondering why we are going to the manor?'
'Don't you want to go?'
'No; I am afraid.'
'What is there to be afraid of?' snapped Slimak, but he himself was shivering.