Jagica by Edna Worthley Underwood

XAVER ŠANDOR-GJALSKI

I had worked for a long time with the day laborers. As I started to go / home night had already come. It was an inspiring warm night of summer; I / chose the longest way, so enchanted was I with the beauty of the / evening. In the moonlight the mountains seemed to tremble; from the / trees slanted long, black shadows, and the scent of an unknown flower / perfumed the air. The voices of nightingales resounded from trees within / the forest, out of thickets along the hills, and from the deep grass, / insects called.

On a night like this, the gentleness of slumbering nature, the sweet / mystery of shadows, pour a warmth of happiness into the heart. A sort of / divine unrest took possession of me. Every once in a while I paused and / looked with delight upon the bright mist-veiled distance. Dreams of / youth came back, long buried desires came to life again, and I longed / passionately for something which I was unable clearly to define for / myself. The beauty of the summer night had intoxicated me. Across the / deep, sweet silence rang out upon a sudden a song, sung by a voice of / youth. At first the echo of the mountains brought the song to me, and I / could not be sure whether it was a song or an interrupted voice that / called. Then it drew nearer and nearer. There was no doubt now but that / it was a song. Borne on the clean, soft air it reached me, and the / melody was that of an old folk song. I wanted to hear it better, to be / near it, and strangely moved, I followed the voice of song.

A tall, young peasant, barefooted, was hastening past. In one hand he / held a twig which he moved nimbly to and fro. The round shabby hat / rested on the back of his neck, and the night wind played with the hair / upon his forehead. He bore his head erect, as if, with his song, he were / striving to reach the limpid, air-swept heights.

Faster he walked. I followed him. His song lured me on. There was a / longing in his onward leaps and in the words which celebrated love. When / he was near the village he changed his song, and the new song was merry / and mocking:

/ "_Shove the bolt, the door fling wide,_ / _Soon, sweetheart, I'm by your side._"

Out of the valley the echo came back, and in the echo there was / something defiant, fawn-like.

Now the peasant boy left the highway and turned toward the hills. Above, / between the fruit trees -- one half of it pallid-white from the / moonlight, -- the other half black with shadows, peeped out a peasant's / home. On the shadowed side, one tiny window shone fiery red from a lamp.

When the peasant reached the foot of the hill, the light was / extinguished. A door within the house was heard to open, and a figure / slipped across the moonlighted courtyard.

"Ah, ha! " I said to myself, not without envy. "I thought it must be a / lover's rendezvous. " In the meantime he had slowly climbed the hill. A / woman's form came toward him a hundred steps away. From my place of / concealment, behind the thick trunk of an old apple tree, I recognized / the girl -- Jagica, the prettiest peasant girl in the country. A shiver / touched me. "She! -- And how prim she always appears," I added between my / teeth.

The boy paused beside her but they did not shake hands, nor kiss, nor / embrace. They stood and looked and greeted each other in the name of God / and the Holy Virgin. He looked about for something to lean against, and / seeing a tree stump, propped himself against it with the right half of / his body.

"I walked too fast," he exclaimed, and drew one shirt sleeve across his / face to wipe the sweat from his forehead. The girl drew a bottle from / concealment, and held it out toward him. "Today father went to the / wine-dresser's house and brought back a cask of wine. We drank some of / it, too," she explained, turning aside a little. She stood resting her / weight on one foot; with one hand she held a grass stalk, one end of / which she was chewing.

The boy took the bottle and shook it softly. Then he lifted it to the / light, nodded, rubbed the neck of the bottle energetically with one / hand, coughed, spat, threw his head back and lifted the bottle slowly. / For a long time one heard only the regular _gurgle -- gurgle -- gurgle_.

"I heard you a long way off. You came through the woods, didn't you? " / began the girl, turning toward him again, as the hand with the bottle / fell slowly to his knee.

"I sang to pass away the time. I'm not so afraid either -- in the / night -- when I sing. The witches don't dare come near then."

"I was really worried. I was afraid you'd gone too far toward Banovica. / Old people say that once -- there, a man was murdered. The witches choked / him to death."

"Nothing like that will ever happen to me."

"Keep still! Keep still! Tell me the truth -- didn't you go too near the / horse herdsmen? What if they had seen you? Heavens!"

"They didn't see me, and if they did -- what do I care? I'm not doing / anything wrong."

"But, God in Heaven, you know what sort of fellows they are. They are / all mad because you come from another parish -- to see me. They might do / something to you and, as it falls out, tonight Mihalčic' Tono is with / them -- on the meadow. He's the devil."