The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-08-08
Select gtorg.
IN A CLEFT STICK
From Cornhill Magazine.

Wan pine forest. IL CONSISTS OF DuC uVe
low cottages, built of rough stones and
matched with straw. For light the peas
ants burn pine logs upon the hearth.
The Pickering CLEAN of their red flames
shines through the small windows and is
lost in the gloom of the forest The sum
mer night is dark with clouds, and the
moon has not yet risen. The wind soughs
softly over the tops of the pines, otherwise
all around reigns the completest stiffness.
In small room in one of the cottages
five men sit around a rough table playing
cards by the light of the pine logs and
smoking short wooden pipes. They are
all of them of middle age, between forty
and fifty, Drowned with the sun and the
wind. Their beardless faces are covered
with wrinkles and their bristling hair is
cut short They wear roughly-knitted,
homemade Jerseys. and are barefooted.
In corner of the room a woman sits on
a wide bed, rocking with her foot cradle
in which a baby is asleep, Two bigger
children sleep on the bed behind her. The
woman has rosary in her hands and is
telling her beads. The men do not speak
except when the game requires it. They
are playing for marks only, which they
make with piece of chalk upon the table.
The monotonous amusement lasts an hour
or two. Meanwhile, the woman has laid
herself down on the bed and gone to sleep.
At length the old, smoke-stained wooden
clock strikes II with dull sound resem-
bling that of cracked glass. AS if at a
word of command the men rise at once
from the bench and shuttle softly from the
room.
The last of them, man of middle height
who limps on one foot, carefully puts out
the fire. This is the owner of the cottage,
Skokan.
Outside his companions waited in the
yard. One of them had in his hands four
rods, each about three yards long, bent in
the form of a bow, and pole. All wore
something fastened at their sides which
looked like bag. When Skokan had
ish bundle of rods and another long pole,
he also fastened bag at his side. That
done, he whistled to small dog to come
out of his kennel, and then they all left
the yard together, Skokan closing the gate
carefully, so that the dog should not get
out.
Leaving the road at once, they entered
under the dark vault of the branches of
the great pine trees. Not word was
spoken among them. For half an hour
they pissed on, following Skokan, some
times through the thick woods, sometimes
through new plantations, where the
branches of the young trees beat roughly
against their faces. At last they came to
little brook that wound its way through
the thickets. There Skokan stopped.
"Mates," he said in low voice, 1--WE
will stop here and rest, so that we shall
not go heated into the water"
They all sat down on the spongy moss,
unable to see one another in the dark.
'Iisten, mates" went on Skokan, "I
have heard a report. You know, mates,
that we have worked together these twelve
years, and up to now they have never
caught any of us, But yesterday evening
| heard something"
"What then ?" asked two voices. The
third man was silent.
"You know Frantishka, who was my
wife's friend, is in service with the bailiff "
cay, what then ?" assented again the
two voices.
yesterday my wife went with her to
vespers, and Frantishka told her that they
say we ought to keep an eye on you, Zinka
They say that yesterday morning you were
talking for long time with the bailiff and
the forester at the office.
The man who had hitherto kept silence
answered quickly, II went to the office to
pay the rent"
"But Frantishka says that you were
there long time"
"Skokan, you are not fooled by a
woman's chatter answered the man who
was addressed. "All these years we have
worked together you have never doubted
me. The forester was there only by
chance"
"Well, mate, 1 did think it was Just
woman's chatter agreed Skokan.
Il don't believe it "Nor !" said
the other two.
Il have only toll yon, mates, that there
was something said, replied Skokan
easily. "Now we are cool, let us go down
to the mere. We can jump the stream
easily just below here"
The men were poachers, and tonight
were going to catch carp in one of the
Counts meres. They had been thither
often enough before, they and the villagers,
too. For they all poached- winter game
and in the summer carp, stealing out at
night, when the moon rose late, from their
quiet cottages in the lonely woods, to re-
turn at dawn, soaking wet, and numbed
with cold; bent sometimes with the weight
of the carp in the bags ON their backs, and
sometimes with the pain of gunshot, and
sometimes leaving hshind them on the
forest paths drops of blood to mark their
steps. Now and again man never came
home at all.
Many of them had no occasion to poach.
They could live well enough on the pro
dace of their fields and meadows. But
the poaching was passion with them. Of
them all the most daring and the most ex-
perienced was the limping Skokan. What
a number of carp that man had taken home
from the Counts fsh-ponds for his chill
dren In eatl His wife also eacratl,, tool-