Strona 318 z 626

Then said the mother likewise: 'What a clever Elsie we have!' and

sat down and wept with them. The man upstairs waited a short

time, but as his wife did not come back and his thirst grew ever

greater, he said: 'I must go into the cellar myself and see where

Elsie is.' But when he got into the cellar, and they were all

sitting together crying, and he heard the reason, and that

Elsie's child was the cause, and the Elsie might perhaps bring

one into the world some day, and that he might be killed by the

pick-axe, if he should happen to be sitting beneath it, drawing

beer just at the very time when it fell down, he cried: 'Oh, what

a clever Elsie!' and sat down, and likewise wept with them. The

bridegroom stayed upstairs alone for a long time; then as no one

would come back he thought: 'They must be waiting for me below: I

too must go there and see what they are about.' When he got down,

the five of them were sitting screaming and lamenting quite

piteously, each out-doing the other.