Stranica 142 [142]
LABOULA YE SZALA Y BOOK
‘Weep, if you like,” he cried; "it will do you no good.
What you wished for you possess. Eat the bread that you
have chosen."
It was thus that the rich Marienka lived in her castle,
dying of hunger, and seeking in vain for a root to allay the
torture that was consuming her. God had humbled her by
granting her prayer.
Three days in the year, the Rogation Days, when the
ground half opens to receive the fruitful rain sent by the
Lord, Marienka returns to the earth. Dressed in rags,
pale and wrinkled, she begs from door to door, too happy
when any one throws her a few crusts, and when she receives
as alms from the poor what she lacks in her palace of gold—
a little bread and a little pity.