Immediately the clatter of a fire steel against a flint sounded and the sparks began to fall; by their glittering light, Zbyszko beheld the white forehead, the dark eyebrows and the red lips of the girl who was blowing on the tinder which began to burn. Not until then did he realize that she had come to the forest to help him, and that without her aid, he would have perished. He felt such gratitude toward her, that he impulsively seized her around the waist and kissed her on both cheeks.
The tinder and the steel fell to the ground.
"Let me be!" she began to repeat in a muffled voice; but she allowed him to kiss her and even, as if by accident, touched Zbyszko's lips with her mouth. He released her and said:
"May God reward you. I do not know what would have happened without your help."
Then Jagienka, while searching for the tinder and fire steel, began to excuse herself:
"I was worried about you, because Bezduch also went with a fork and an axe, but the bear tore him to pieces. If you met with such a misfortune, Macko would be very desolate, and he hardly breathes now. So I took a fork and came."
"Then it was you whom I heard there behind the pines?"
"I was very much frightened, because it is dangerous to be without fire here around the Radzikowski marshes."
"Because I was afraid you would send me away."
Having said this, she again began to strike sparks from the steel, and put on the tinder a bundle of hemp which began to burn.
"I have two resinous pieces of wood," said she; "you bring some dried branches quickly, and we will soon have a fire."
In fact, after a while a bright fire was burning, and lighted the enormous, brown body of the bear which was lying in a pool of blood.
"Hej, a dreadful beast!" said Zbyszko, boastfully.
"You split his head entirely open! O, Jesus!"
Then she leaned over and felt of the bear's body, to ascertain whether the beast was fat; then she arose with a bright face, and said:
"There will be plenty of grease for two years."
"That is too bad; what shall I tell them at home?"
"_Tatus_ would not let me come into the forest, therefore I was obliged to wait until everybody had retired."
"You must not tell that I was here, because they will laugh at me."
"But I will go with you to your house, because I am afraid the wolves will attack you, and you have no fork."