Marija wants the orchestra to continue. They are exhausted. A new country with new customs. Young people do not follow traditions. They have no respect. Ona is worried. They have so many bills to pay.
It was all
Marija Berczynskas. Marija was one of those hungry souls who cling with
desperation to the skirts of the retreating muse. All day long she had been in
a state of wonderful exaltation; and now it was leaving—and she would not let
it go…
And she would go
back to the chase of it—and no sooner be fairly started than her chariot would
be thrown off the track, so to speak, by the stupidity of those thrice accursed
musicians. Each time, Marija would emit a howl and fly at them, shaking her
fists in their faces, stamping upon the floor, purple and incoherent with rage.
In vain the frightened Tamoszius would attempt to speak, to plead the
limitations of the flesh; in vain would the puffing and breathless ponas
Jokubas insist, in vain would Teta Elzbieta implore. "Szalin!" Marija
would scream. "Palauk! isz kelio! What are you paid for, children of
hell?" And so, in sheer terror, the orchestra would strike up again, and
Marija would return to her place and take up her task.
She bore all the
burden of the festivities now. Ona was kept up by her excitement, but all of
the women and most of the men were tired—the soul of Marija was alone
unconquered. She drove on the dancers—what had once been the ring had now the
shape of a pear, with Marija at the stem, pulling one way and pushing the
other, shouting, stamping, singing, a very volcano of energy. Now and then some
one coming in or out would leave the door open, and the night air was chill;
Marija as she passed would stretch out her foot and kick the doorknob, and slam
would go the door! Once this procedure was the cause of a calamity of which
Sebastijonas Szedvilas was the hapless
victim. Little Sebastijonas, aged three, had been wandering about oblivious to
all things, holding turned up over his mouth a bottle of liquid known as
"pop," pink-colored, ice-cold, and delicious. Passing through the
doorway the door smote him full, and
the shriek which followed brought the dancing to a halt. Marija, who threatened
horrid murder a hundred times a day, and would weep over the injury of a fly,
seized little Sebastijonas in her arms and bid
fair to smother him with kisses.
There was a long rest for the orchestra, and plenty of refreshments, while
Marija was making her peace with her victim, seating him upon the bar, and
standing beside him and holding to his lips a foaming schooner of beer.
In the meantime
there was going on in another corner of the room an anxious conference between
Teta Elzbieta and Dede Antanas, and a few of the more intimate friends of the
family. A trouble was come upon them. The veselija is a compact, a compact not
expressed, but therefore only the more binding upon all. Every one's share was
different—and yet every one knew perfectly well what his share was, and strove
to give a little more. Now, however, since they had come to the new country,
all this was changing; it seemed as if there must be some subtle poison in the
air that one breathed here—it was affecting all the young men at once. They
would come in crowds and fill themselves with a fine dinner, and then sneak
off. One would throw another's hat out of the window, and both would go out to
get it, and neither could be seen again. Or now and then half a dozen of them
would get together and march out openly, staring at you, and making fun of you
to your face. Still others, worse yet, would crowd about the bar, and at the
expense of the host drink themselves sodden,
paying not the least attention to any one, and leaving it to be thought that
either they had danced with the bride already, or meant to later on.
All these things
were going on now, and the family was helpless with dismay. So long they had
toiled, and such an outlay they had made! Ona stood by, her eyes wide with
terror. Those frightful bills—how they had haunted her, each item gnawing at her soul all day and
spoiling her rest at night. How often she had named them over one by one and
figured on them as she went to work—fifteen dollars for the hall, twenty-two
dollars and a quarter for the ducks, twelve dollars for the musicians, five
dollars at the church, and a blessing of the Virgin besides—and so on without
an end! Worst of all was the frightful bill that was still to come from
Graiczunas for the beer and liquor that might be consumed. One could never get
in advance more than a guess as to this from a saloon-keeper—and then, when the
time came he always came to you scratching his head and saying that he had
guessed too low, but that he had done his best—your guests had gotten so very
drunk. By him you were sure to be cheated unmercifully, and that even though
you thought yourself the dearest of the hundreds of friends he had. He would
begin to serve your guests out of a keg that was half full, and finish with one
that was half empty, and then you would be charged for two kegs of beer. He
would agree to serve a certain quality at a certain price, and when the time
came you and your friends would be drinking some horrible poison that could not
be described. You might complain, but you would get nothing for your pains but
a ruined evening; while, as for going to law about it, you might as well go to
heaven at once. The saloon-keeper stood in with all the big politics men in the
district; and when you had once found out what it meant to get into trouble
with such people, you would know enough to pay what you were told to pay and
shut up.
Vocabulary
Hapless:
unfortunate
Smote: inflict a
heavy blow on
bid fair: seem
likely
schooner: a
large beer glass
sodden: stupid from drink
gnawing: eroding
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