Sayfa 288 / 788

"Hardly was day dawning, when from one side came Dowejko in a

gig, and from the other Domejko on horseback. They beheld that

over the river stretched a shaggy bridge, a girdle of bear skin

cut into strips. I stationed Dowejko at the tail of the beast on

one side, and Domejko on the other side. 'Now blaze away,' I

said, 'for all your lives if you choose, but I won't let you go

until you are friends again.' They got furious, but then the

gentry present fairly rolled on the ground for laughter; and the

priest and I with impressive words set to giving them lessons

from the Gospel and from the Statutes. There was no help for it;

they laughed and had to be reconciled.

"Their quarrel turned later into a lifelong friendship, and

Dowejko married the sister of Domejko; Domejko espoused the

sister of his brother-in-law, Panna Dowejko: they divided their

property into two equal portions, and on the spot where so

strange an occurrence had happened they built a tavern, and

called it the Little Bear."