Page:Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also, The Man Without a Name.djvu/82

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Libussa.

for the sceptre. She chooses thee for her consort, to govern, together with her, Bohemia.

The young peasant thought they wanted to joke with him, which he did not relish at all, and still less because he thought they had guessed his secret love, and now came to laugh at him. Therefore he answered angrily, to repel scorn with scorn: “Let us consider if your duchy is worth being exchanged for the plough? If the prince cannot eat more, drink more, or sleep better than the peasant, then it is certainly not worth while to exchange this field for the country of Bohemia, and this polished driving-stick for the sceptre. Tell me, is a little salt-cellar not sufficient to season my morsel; or will it taste better if I take it out of a bushel?”

Thereupon one of the twelve answered, “The light-shunning mole digs under the earth to find worms, which he lives upon, for he has not eyes that can endure the light of day, nor has he feet to be able to run like the fleet doe; the crawfish creeps about in the slime of rivers and seas, likes best to reside under the roots of trees and bushes that grow on the river’s banks, for he has no fins to swim; and the domestic birds dare not fly over the clay wall that surrounds them, for they are too faint-hearted to rely upon their