1 Jurgis had not had such a feast since his wedding day, and he made a mighty effort to put in his twenty cents' worth.
2 The cost of the wedding feast would, of course, be returned to them; but the problem was to raise it even temporarily.
3 Before long it occurs to some one to demand an old wedding song, which celebrates the beauty of the bride and the joys of love.
4 The forewoman was especially severe with Ona, because she believed that she was obstinate on account of having been refused a holiday the day after her wedding.
5 Over them, relentless and savage, there cracked the lash of want; the morning after the wedding it sought them as they slept, and drove them out before daybreak to work.
6 It was one Saturday night, as they were coming home from a wedding, that Tamoszius found courage, and set down his violin case in the street and spoke his heart; and then Marija clasped him in her arms.
7 Grandmother Majauszkiene had lived in the midst of misfortune so long that it had come to be her element, and she talked about starvation, sickness, and death as other people might about weddings and holidays.
8 The marriage would have been at once, if they had had their way; but this would mean that they would have to do without any wedding feast, and when they suggested this they came into conflict with the old people.
9 That first night at the wedding Tamoszius had hardly taken his eyes off her; and later on, when he came to find that she had really the heart of a baby, her voice and her violence ceased to terrify him, and he got the habit of coming to pay her visits on Sunday afternoons.