"Where did you learn these spells, Mosh Nichifor?"
"Eh? My dear young lady, that I may not tell. My old woman--she was just on twenty-four when I fell in love with her--what hasn't she done! How she has worried me to tell her, and I wouldn't tell her. And that's why she'll die when she does die, but why hasn't she died long before, for then I could have got a younger woman. For three days I can live in peace with her, and then it's enough to kill one! I am sick to death of the old hag. Every minute she worries and reproaches me by her manner. When I think that when I return I have got to go back to her, I feel wild--just inclined to run away--nothing more nor less."
"Stop, stop, Mosh Nichifor, you men are like that."
"Eh! Mistress Malca, here we are near the top of the wood. Won't you walk a little while we go up the hill? I only say it because I am afraid you will get stiff sitting in the carriage. Look at the lovely flowers along the edge of the wood, they fill the air with sweetness. It is really a pity for you to sit huddled up there."
"I am afraid of the wolf, Mosh Nichifor," said Malca, shaking.
"Let's have done with that wolf. Have you nothing else to talk about?"
"Wo! Step gently here on to the step of the carriage. Ah, now I see for myself that you are sturdy; that's how I like people to be, born not laid."
While Malca gathered some balm to take to Itzic, old Nichifor stood still and tinkered a little at the carriage. Then he called quickly:
"Are you ready, young lady? Come, get in and let us get on with the help of God; from here on it is mostly down hill."
"If we meet with no obstacles I shall soon have you in Peatra."
"White for the leader, white for the wheeler The pole lies bare on the one side. Heigh! It's not far to Galatz. Heigh!"
He had scarcely gone twenty yards when--bang! An axle-pin broke.
"Woe is me! Mosh Nichifor, we shall be benighted in the wood."
"Don't take it amiss, Mistress Malca. Come, it's only happened to me once in my life. While you eat a little something, and the mares put away a bit of fodder, I shall have replaced the axle-pin."
When old Nichifor came to look at the hook, the little axe had disappeared!
"Well, what has been had to be," said old Nichifor, knitting his eyebrows, and getting angry as he thought of it. "If God punishes the old woman, may he punish her! See how she takes care of me; there is no axe here."