LXXV.
Matsko had lived to happy years in his life. He declared to his neighbors repeatedly that he had received more than he himself had hoped for. Even old age had only whitened the hair on his head and in his beard; it had not taken from him health or strength. His heart was full of such great joyfulness as up to that time he had never experienced. His face, formerly severe, had become more and more kindly, and his eyes smiled at people with a friendly expression. In his soul he had the conviction that all evil had ended forever, that no care, no misfortune would dim the days of his life now flowing onward as quietly as a clear river. To war till old age, to manage in old age and increase wealth for his "grandchildren,"—that at all times had been the highest wish of his heart; and now all this had come to pass perfectly. Land management went just as he desired. The forests had been felled in considerable part, the stumps rooted out, and the new land was green every spring with a fleece of various kinds of grain; herds increased, in the fields were forty mares with colts, which the old noble inspected daily. Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle pastured in groves and on fallow lands. Bogdanets had changed thoroughly; from a deserted settlement it had become a populous, a wealthy place, and the eyes of him who approached it from Zgorzelitse by the forest highway were dazzled by the watchtower seen from afar, and the walls of the castle still unblackened and glittering with gold in the sun and the purple evening twilight.
So old Matsko was rejoiced in heart by cattle, by management, by his fortunate fate, and he did not contradict when people said that he had a lucky hand.
A year after the twins there came to the world another boy, whom Yagenka called Zyh in honor of her father.
Matsko received the new visitor with delight and was not troubled in the least by this, that were it to go farther in such wise the property accumulated with so much effort and toil would have to be divided. "For what had we?" asked he, speaking of this once to Zbyshko. "Nothing! still
